c ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



her bantling up against the wall and extracting from its 

 cheek-pouches the gifts of a charitable visitor, together 

 with all the crumbs and scraps the little one had gleaned 

 from the floor, and then adding outrage to injury by 

 cuffing the victim's ears. 



As a consequence of such treatment, a baby-monkey 

 in the teens of its months is generally as lean as a 

 rake ; but the apparent cruelty of its parents may be a 

 wise provision of nature. After Jean Jacques Rousseau's 

 plan, it would be the best possible education for a 

 creature that has to make his living by stealth. Hunger 

 sharpens even a baby's wits, and a young four-hander 

 of ten months is really as preternaturally wide-awake 

 as a ten-year-old gamin of the Quattier des Savoyards. 

 Having learned to mistrust his own parents, he is 

 naturally very circumspect in his dealings with his 

 human guardians, and after a year of the kindest treat- 

 ment a mere contraction of your eyebrows is sufficient 

 to drive him grinning and chattering to his hiding-place. 

 A monkey rarely takes an offered present without watch- 

 ing your eyes and then snatching it with a sudden grab, 

 apparently unable to realize your generous caprice, but 

 concluding to take luck by the forelock before you 

 change your mind. In the summer season I have often 

 permitted a tame monkey to run at large, and before 

 the end of the week I invariably found that my room- 

 mate had established a cache, a hiding-place for storing 

 his mammon of unrighteousness, — stolen apples, nuts, 



