6 THE CHIMPANZEE. 



indeed, that the chimpanzee, although young, had seen in his 

 native forests enough of the habits of the snake to cause him to 

 cherish a hatred of it 5 and in the case of the tortoise, which 

 had no power to inflict an injury, his consternation probably 

 arose entirely from his never having seen such a creature 

 previously, and being, therefore, in doubt whether it could 

 hurt him or not. The fact of the chimpanzee receding from 

 the snake has been adduced by Mr. Blyth, as an argument in 

 favour of the theory which ascribes all the actions of animals 

 to instinct or innate knowledge, and which denies that they 

 perform any of them either from example or from experience. 

 " Place," says he, " a juvenile chimpanzee in the presence of one 

 of its natural enemies a snake for instance and it instinctively 

 recoils with dread." But before any writer adduced such an 

 illustration, it would have been well to have learned whether 

 this dread is exhibited by the young chimpanzee soon after 

 birth, and not infer that it is instinctive, because it is witnessed 

 in one which has lived in the world some months, during which 

 period it may have learned to shun its enemies, either from its 

 own experience, or from observing that older individuals, of 

 its own species, always avoided them. It it said, indeed, that 

 this young chimpanzee showed a great aversion to soldiers, 

 which has been attributed, and perhaps correctly, to the cir- 

 cumstance, that when he was captured his mother was shot by 

 a soldier. Before he arrived in this country, he may have 

 found that his child-like appearance rendered him secure in 

 the presence of dogs, for he had 110 fear of one. In spite of 

 the barking and snarling of a bitch of the Maltese breed, he 

 would intrude upon her kennel, take up her puppies one by 

 one, and after gravely examining them, replace them with the 

 greatest care. 



He would not drink beer or fermented liquors, but would 

 take a cup of tea or milk ; and, in imitation of our actions, 

 gravely sip the contents, and then set the cup down with due 

 propriety. When drinking he always protruded his lips into 

 the cup, and then sucked up the fluid. In this way he would 



