-•) Fauna : Mammals 



who looked after them. They informed him that these young 

 chimpanzees could be trained to bring firewood, scare birds from 

 the rice-fields, and even to act as nurses to little children ! 



I saw in 1 904 a young female chimpanzee from the Cavalla 

 River in the possession of the German Consul at Cape Palmas. 

 It would have been difficult to meet with a more human creature 

 not actually of the genus Homo. This chimpanzee lived in her 

 owner's house as a child might have done, with a negro nurse 

 to look after her. She was generally allowed complete liberty, 

 and did not abuse this freedom by breaking or spoiling anything 

 within her reach, and, strange to say, was wonderfully clean 

 in her habits, a virtue too often wanting in chimpanzees. 

 " Puppe " would come when her name was called, and fling 

 herself into her master's arms. Puppe's sympathy with strangers 

 was discriminating. If she liked the person introduced, she 

 would climb on to his knee and tender charming caresses, 

 pushing out the long lips in a pout to be kissed. 



Of course these animals when taken to Europe nearly 

 always die in a year or two, usually of diseases resulting from 

 cold or damp. Mr. G. A. Boulenger, who has made a con- 

 siderable study of the life habits of the chimpanzee in Europe, 

 is of opinion that those who die in menageries perish as much 

 as anything from sheer mental unhappiness as from any other 

 cause. He would have them treated like human beings, clothed 

 (to counteract the chills of our climate), and not kept in confine- 

 ment. From one cause and another, however, it seems very 

 little use to make humanising experiments with these interesting 

 creatures (on the whole the nearest living relations of man) in 

 our climate ; but Liberia would appear to be an excellent locals 

 in which to make a strenuous endeavour to tame and educate the 

 chimpanzee. Here it would be at home in its own cHmate. If 

 it be really true, as Liberians told Biittikofer, that these creatures 



675 



