34 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



She has also a much smaller head and less swollen muzzle, and 

 is much smaller altogether ; the immature male resembles her. The 

 infant Mandrill, of about the size of a cat, is a most comical little 

 being, large-eyed and short-faced, though already showing the furrowed 

 cheeks and yellow beard, and is absurdly playful, the very antithesis of 

 his beetle-browed, glowering, sullen-looking father. The old Mandrill 

 is credited with great ferocity, and with about every other bad quality 

 an animal can possess; and in its wild state, in West Africa, little 

 else is known about it except that the natives hold it in great dread. 

 It is omnivorous and sociable, and frequents rocks and trees indifferently. 



As a menagerie inmate, it has long been well known and borne a 

 very bad character. Dangerous it is no doubt, its savage temper and 

 great strength rendering it as terrible an antagonist as a Leopard would 

 be; but after being acquainted with several adult male specimens, I 

 must say that they seemed to me rather reserved and dignified animals, 

 and certainly no worse-behaved than any other Baboons. They have 

 a very curious habit of turning round so as to show their bright-hued 

 hind-quarters ; but this is well meant, the animal instinctively displaying 

 his decorations behind as well as before. The beautiful colours of the 

 face have been observed to fade when the animal is unwell, much as 

 may be seen with the comb of the cock under similar circumstances. 

 The Mandrill is not a noisy animal, though it occasionally gives vent 

 to a grunt. 



The Mandrill in captivity not only relishes animal food, which is 

 natural and desirable for all omnivorous monkeys, but has a strong 

 taste for alcohol ; the late Mr. W. Rutledge, in his day the leading 

 animal dealer in Calcutta, always maintained that a daily drink of beer 

 or whisky-and-water was good for Mandrills, and certainly I never saw 

 specimens in finer condition than those he had bought young and cared 

 for well for years for Mandrills seem always to be exported young. One 

 of his specimens had the interesting trick of refusing to drink from a 

 bottle of beer unless he saw the label ; this animal I never saw, and 

 the story would be incredible, only that Rutledge explained to me that, 

 though the appreciation of the beer was instinctive, the scrutiny of the 

 label was an acquired detail ; no doubt the animal had been trained to 

 it by giving him water in an unlabelled bottle. 



