Apes in Captivity 153 



for many years in the Zoological Society's Gardens in 

 London, was taught by its keeper and by Romanes an 

 interesting variety of "tricks" involving at least the 

 rudiments of what may be called human intelligence. 

 Among other feats, it would pick up from the floor and 

 present to the keeper or to a visitor, a stated number of 

 straws up to five. Many monkeys seem nearly purely 

 destructive in their dealings with objects within their 

 reach ; but lycutemann tells of an orang-outang which 

 " tried to put to its proper use whatever was given to 

 him. To my great surprise he attempted to put on a 

 pair of gloves. He supported himself on a light walk- 

 ing cane and, when it bent under him, made ridiculous 

 motions to right it again." Brehm tells of a chim- 

 panzee : 



"After eating, he at once begins to clean up. He holds a 

 stick of wood in front of him, or puts his hands in his master's 

 slippers, and slides about the room, then takes a cloth and 

 scrubs the floor. Scouring, sweeping, and dusting are his 

 favourite occupations ; and, when he once gets hold of the 

 cloth, he never wants to give it up." 



Falkenstein has given a detailed description of a gorilla 

 which was remarkable for his delicacy in eating. 



" He would take a cup or glass with the greatest care, using 

 both hands to carry it to his mouth, and setting it down so 

 carefully that I do not remember having lost a single piece of 

 crockery through him, though we had never tried to teach him 

 the use of such vessels, wishing to bring him to Europe as 

 nearly in his natural condition as possible." 



These and a multitude of similar observations which 

 have been made since Huxley wrote are t3^pical of the 

 increase of our knowledge on the habits and capacities 

 of the anthropoid apes. They all serve to show that in 



