20 VERTEBRATA. MAMMALIA. 



and repeatedly jumped upon it with all his weight. 

 He afterwards swung it about, and dashed it down 

 with such violence, that, fearing his person might 

 suffer, I had it taken away. A hole was afterwards 

 bored through one of the eyes, and the cocoa-nut was 

 again given to him. He immediately held it up, 

 with the aperture downwards, applied his mouth to 

 it, and sucked away at what milk there was with 

 great glee. 



" As I was making notes with a pencil, he came 

 up, inquisitively looked at the paper and pencil, and 

 then took hold of the latter. Before I gave it up, 

 I drew the pencil into the case, foreseeing that he 

 would submit the pencil-case to examination by the 

 teeth. Immediately that he got it into his posses- 

 sion he put the tip of his little ringer to the aperture 

 at the bottom, and, having looked at it, tried the case 

 with his teeth. 



" While his attention was otherwise directed, I had 

 caused a hamper containing one of the Pythons [great 

 serpents] to be brought into the room, and placed on 

 a chair not far from the kitchen-dresser. The lid 

 was raised, the blanket in which the snake was enve- 

 loped was opened, and soon after Tommy came gam- 

 boling that way. As he jumped and danced along 

 the dresser, towards the basket, he was all gaiety and 

 life. Suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stop- 

 ped, then cautiously advanced towards the basket, 

 peered, or rather craned over it, and instantly, with 

 a gesture of horror and aversion, and the cry of 



