18 



THE APES AND MONKEYS. 



the rain. His hair is olive-black, his face hairless 

 and flesh-colored, and his buttocks white." 



Character- Savage, who made his observations in 

 istic Lower Guinea, writes : " We cannot say 

 Traits. t na j j ne Chimpanzee is a gregarious 

 animal, as there are seldom more than five, or, at the 

 utmost, ten living together. Relying upon trust- 

 worthy reports, I may say, though, that they some- 

 times gather in greater numbers for play. One of 

 my narrators claims to have seen at one time about 

 fifty of them which had assembled on trees and 

 amused themselves with screaming and drumming 

 on the tree-trunks. They avoid human habitations 

 as much as they can. Their dwellings, which are 

 more nest-like than hut-like, they build on trees, not 

 at a great height from the ground. They break and 

 twist and cross larger and smaller branches, and sup- 

 port the whole on an embranchment, or on a strong 

 bough. Sometimes you find such a nest at the end 

 of a bough, twenty or thirty feet from the ground, but 

 I have seen some that could not be less than forty 

 feet high. They do not care for a permanent home, 

 but change abiding places often in looking for food 

 or for other reasons. We frequently saw them in the 

 mountains, probably because the valleys, more favor- 

 able to the agriculture of the natives, lacked the 

 trees necessary for their nest-building. Two or more 

 nests are rarely seen in the same tree or even in the 

 same neighborhood, though five were once found 

 together. Nests, properly so-called, consisting of 

 interwoven branches, as Du Chaillu describes, have 

 not been seen by any of the other narrators." 



When in repose the Chimpanzee in the wild state 

 usually assumes a sitting posture. He is often seen 

 standing or walking, but the minute he is detected, 

 drops on all fours and flees. As may be supposed 

 from his nest building, the Chimpanzee is an adept 

 at climbing. In his play he swings himself from tree 

 to tree and jumps with amazing agility. His food 

 probably is the same as that of the Gorilla, — fruits, 

 nuts, buds and, perhaps, roots, forming the staple 

 articles of diet. 



The Chimpan- The Chimpanzee is made a captive 

 zee in oftener than the other Man-like Apes, 

 Captivity. b u t unfortunately does not live over 

 two or three years in that state, although it is said 

 that in West Africa he has lived over twenty years 

 in captivity. Captive Chimpanzees under obser- 

 vation have so far always shown themselves gentle, 

 clever and amiable. Degrandpre saw on a ship a 

 female which performed various tasks. Buffon re- 

 lates that his Chimpanzee had a sad and serious look, 

 and moved about in a dignified manner. He had not 

 a single one of the nasty qualities of the Baboons, 

 neither was he so playful as the Guenons. He was 

 very obedient, shook hands with people, ate at the 

 table, used his napkin, poured out wine for himself, 

 got a cup and saucer when he wanted tea, put in 

 the sugar and always waited for the tea to get cold. 

 He never harmed any one, but had a very modest, 

 gentle bearing, and delighted in being petted. 



Out of all the numerous stories about the Chim- 

 panzee we select here the accounts of the celebrated 

 Sainter of animals, Fr. Specht, concerning one in 

 fill's Zoological Garden in Stuttgart. This Chim- 

 Eanzee, as Specht affirms, could laugh like a human 

 eing: "I took notice of this, for no other animal 

 .can show its joy by loud laughter. When I would 

 take this sympathetic fellow under the arms, throw 

 him in the air and catch him, the cage rang with 

 his merry peals of laughter. One day I brought a 



piece of chalk along, and sat down on a chair. In 

 a moment he was sitting on my knees awaiting 

 further developments. I put the chalk in his hand, 

 and leading it, drew several figures on the wall, 

 when I let go of his hand, he started to shade the 

 drawings with such diligence that they soon dis- 

 appeared, to the great amusement of the spectators. 

 There are now two Chimpanzees in the Stuttgart 

 Zoological Garden, which are the closest of friends. 

 The female had been there before, and when the 

 male arrived his box was put over night in her warm, 

 roomy cage, the presentation being intended for the 

 morrow. When the box, which, by the way, had 

 been upholstered, was opened and the male got out, 

 they both stood on their hind legs for a few minutes 

 earnestly gazing at each other. Then they flew into 

 each other's embrace and exchanged hearty and re- 

 peated kisses ; and the female brought her blanket, 

 spread it on the floor, sat down on it and by gestures 

 invited the male to do likewise. It makes a charm- 

 ing picture to see these two taking their meals at 

 a table. They both use spoons and do not in the 

 least interfere with each other. The female has the 

 peculiarity of cautiously taking the male's glass and 

 drinking a goodly portion out of that, too, after 

 which she returns it. She evidently does not want 

 him to drink too much. Both these animals laugh 

 heartily when at play." 

 "Mr. Crowley" The same fate has befallen Chimpan- 

 of zees brought to the United States as 



New York. was me t by those taken to Europe. 

 All will readily recall that most attractive fellow, 

 " Mr. Crowley," so long the chief object of admira- 

 tion in the museum of Central Park, New York. 

 This Chimpanzee was greatly attached to his keeper 

 and displayed a readiness and agility in performing 

 amusing tricks that won 'he attention of every one. 

 He acquired a number ot accomplishments in the 

 way of eating and drinking, and displayed, until the 

 ravages of disease spoiled his temper, a mildness of 

 disposition that charmed his daily visitors. " Mr. 

 Crowley " had two attacks of pneumonia before his 

 final, fatal illness, consumption, that nearly certain 

 enemy of all Apes in captivity. " Miss Kitty," a 

 less amiable, and, therefore, less attractive Chim- 

 panzee, was his companion for awhile, but she, too, 

 shared the same fate as the idolized " Mr. Crowley." 

 Barnum, the American showman, had two Chim- 

 panzees, " Nip " and " Tuck," on exhibition in vari- 

 ous towns and cities in this country, but they did 

 not display the intelligence shown by " Mr. Crow- 

 ley," nor did they live for a great while. Perhaps 

 their narrow quarters in a cage and constant travel- 

 ing combined to sour their tempers and limit their 

 capacity for learning. Other attempts to introduce 

 the Chimpanzee into this country have not been en- 

 couraging, lack of understanding of the habits of 

 the animal being in some measure the cause ; but it 

 is a fact that this Ape does much better in warmer 

 and drier climates like Paris than in that of the 

 colder parts of the Continent of Europe and Eng- 

 land, and the Northern States of this country. The 

 experiment of keeping one has not been tried in the 

 South. 



THE ORANG-UTAN. 



The most important Asiatic Man-like Ape is the 

 Orang-utan (Man of the Woods), sometimes incor- 

 rectly called Orang-Utang, and named Mias or 

 Majas in Borneo [Pithecus satyrus). He is distin- 

 guished by his disproportionately long arms, reach- 



