150 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



They take a curious delight in pressing their snub-noses 

 against the shop-windows of the European merchants, 

 and examine the array of novelties with a critical squint. 

 A knot of strangers standing before a hotel, engaged 

 in an animated discussion, has often been thrown into 

 convulsions of laughter by the manoeuvres of a honu- 

 man, joining them and chattering away with protruded 

 lips and all the appearance of a personal interest in the 

 issue of the debate. Fireworks, even long after sun- 

 down, never fail to attract a crowd of baboons, grunting 

 their applause and looking at each other with approving 

 grins. Housekeepers have to watch them carefully ; for 

 old baboons get very fond of toys. They will abstract 

 a door-key, pick up a tin plate, a piece of brass, or an 

 ornamental flower-pot, and run off with a demonstrative 

 delight in their new plaything. A Delhi, bhunder-mon- 

 key attracted general attention by parading the streets 

 with two gaudy shawls, evidently not of legal acquisi- 

 tion, as his bad conscience made him take to his heels 

 whenever anybody so much as pointed toward his dry- 

 goods. 



Their long intercourse with the primate of their spe- 

 cies has developed race-sympathies which often manifest 

 themselves in an unexpected way. Colonel Lawrence, of 

 the Agra " Planters' Hotel," keeps a tame leopard, which 

 once followed its master to the freight-depot of the 

 railway-station. The shady platform at the north end 

 of the depot is a great resort for baboons and loafers ; 



