ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 12% 
JOHN GORILLA AND CHILD THREE YEARS OLD 
December, 1920. 
cautious. He never would run into a dark room 
without first turning on the light! He enjoyed 
getting into a warm bath and sponging himself, 
but we could allow this only during warm 
summer weather. 
He always went to bed at eight o'clock. He 
had his own little room, adjoining that of my 
nephew, with a spring bed and blankets. He 
would get out in the night by himself, go back 
to bed and pull the blankets over himself quite 
neatly. A thing he greatly enjoyed was to 
stand on the top rail of his bed and jump on the 
springs, head over heels, just like a child. 
We never taught him any tricks; he simply 
acquired knowledge himself. We took him by 
train to our cottage in the country, as an ordi- 
nary passenger, without even a chain round 
his neck. We found he did not like fields or 
open country, but he was very happy in a garden 
or in woods. He was very much afraid of full 
grown sheep, cows and horses, but he loved 
colts, calves or lambs, proving to us that he 
recognized youth. At the cottage he found he 
had to jump to get water, which he taught him- 
self in three days. 
We made one very great mistake with John. 
His cage was used as a punishment, with the 
result we never could leave him there alone, for 
he would shriek all the time. We never were 
able to get a satisfactory person to look after 
him, and so he became a very great tie. We 
tried a great many persons, but they all im- 
agined that you could not bring up the animal 
without a stick. Now a stick was the one thing 
that our gorilla would not stand from anyone 
save Major Penny and myself. Presently we 
found out that the only way to deal with him 
was to tell him he was very naughty, and push 
him when he would roll on 
the floor and cry and be very repentant, holding 
one’s ankles and putting his head on our feet. 
away from us; 
At last our gorilla became such a tie that 
we knew we must presently part with him. 
Understanding he was to be placed in a private 
park in Florida and believing that these would 
be ideal conditions for him, we signed the con- 
tract to sell him, only to find out too late 
Un- 
fortunately also the man sent to take him 
what the real conditions were to be. 
across to America had not the slightest no- 
tion how to treat him, because, although we 
stipulated he would stay with John for six 
weeks, he was with John only a very few 
Thus was poor John Gorilla taken 
away from us by a complete stranger to him, 
with the result that from totally changed 
conditions and homesickness he soon became 
ill, and my presence was called for by cable 
entirely too late for me to find him alive. He 
died in Madison Square Garden Tower in the 
last week of April, 1921. 
hours. 
MISS CUNNINGHAM AND HER GORILLA PET 
Taken in March, 1921. 
