A WALK ROUND THE ZOO 259 



offspring live together in the open-air cage where 

 the young one was born about six years ago. 

 They are a highly interesting, if not engaging family. 

 She is susceptible to ridicule as well as secretly 

 jealous of the attention lavished on Young Hopeful, 

 and she will scold and chatter at you like an old 

 Irish washerwoman. Father is getting past work. 

 I believe he never climbs the wire-netting now. 

 He is rheumaticky and silent, but if his sometimes 

 thoughtless visitors urge him too much he flies 

 into a rage more terrible than that of his wife, 

 and then Young Hopeful joins in with all sorts of 

 naughty swear words that he really should not 

 have picked up at such a tender age. 



Young Hopeful is scarcely nearer to the stature 

 of his parents than a child of five years old of our 

 own species. Like them he has a red face. He 

 is clad in rather hairy khaki, the trousers of which 

 appear decidedly baggy. He is always aloft, 

 where it fatigues his parents to follow, and from 

 his point of vantage he stretches his arms through 

 the wire, almost to the shoulder. You hand to 

 him your closed hand with a bit of apple in the 

 palm. He seizes a finger, draws the hand nearer, 

 then unlocks finger after finger till he can get the 

 food. As he eats it he dances rapidly in a way 

 that plainly signifies, ' Ain't I a clever fellow, and 

 didn't I do that beautifully ? ' 



The inhabitants of the Zoo learn many ways of 

 extracting food from the visitors. Bears find that 

 there is a bar of their cage that jangles, and this 



