THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 93 



bar of the back, and when he sees it coming over his 

 way, darts from underneath and watches the fall with 

 great delight; and similarly with heavier things. 

 There is a washstand, for example, with a heavy marble 

 top, which he has with great labour upset several times, 

 but always without hurting himself." * 



Vosmaern had a tame female orang-outang that 

 could untie the most intricate knots with fingers or 

 teeth, and took such pleasure in doing it that she regu- 

 larly untied the shoes of those who came near her. 

 Still more remarkable is the dexterity of Miss Komanes's 

 monkey. Her entry for January 14, 1881, runs thus: 

 " To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one 

 of the kind which has the handle screwed into the 

 brush. He soon found the way to unscrew the handle, 

 and having done that he immediately began to try to 

 find out the way to screw it in again. This he in time 

 accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the 

 handle into the hole, but turned it round and round 

 the right way of screwing. Finding it did not hold, 

 he turned the other end of the handle and carefully 

 stuck it into the hole, and began to turn it the right 

 way. It was, of course, a very difficult feat for him to 

 perform, for he required both his hands to hold the 

 handle in the proper position and to turn it between 

 his hands in order to screw it in, and the long bristles 

 of the brush prevented it from remaining steady or 

 with the right side up. He held the brush with his 

 hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to 

 get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; 

 he worked at it, however, with the most unwearying 

 perseverance until he got the first turn of the screw 



* Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 484. 



