ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1103 



of patient care and kindness, remain spiteful 

 and ferocious; but "Dinah" is a conspicuous ex- 

 ception to the rule, ^^'hen I first acquired lier, 

 a few days after she was captured, she was as 

 vicious and savage as any that I have ever seen ; 

 but now, after five months in captivity, she is 

 as tame and playful as a house cat. 



"Dinah" is the only gorilla that I have ever 

 known to attempt a laugh or even a smile; but 

 she does both. When tickled under the arms 

 or on the bottom of the foot, she chuckles aud- 

 ibly, in a manner closely verging on a real 

 laugh, and she seems to enjoy being tickled. 

 She is a real tomboy, and often challenges me 

 for a romp. Frequently when I enter her big 

 cage, she climbs upon my shoulders or head, 

 or slaps my cheeks in a most human-like fash- 

 ion, beats a tattoo on my back, or snatches oft 

 my hat as a mischievous boy would do. She 

 has a real sense of humor, and it often mani- 

 fests itself in pranks which clearly indicate 

 that she is conscious of being funny. 



Her varied poses on the trapeze are quite 

 unique, and some of them would arouse the envy 

 of a professional acrobat. She often indulges 

 in a game of solitaire football. She clutches a 

 bunch of straw between her feet, and, using 

 her arms as crutches, rushes across the floor 

 of her long cage, tosses the wisp against the 

 wall, then catches it in her hands and scuffles 

 with it in a boisterous manner, as though it 

 were some living thing trying to get away from 

 her. After a bout or two at this she occasion- 

 ally rises to an erect position and beats a rous- 

 ing tattoo on her breast with her hands ; strik- 

 ing alternately, with surprising rapidity and 

 force. 



To watch her movements and expression in 

 searching for the gorilla behind a mirror is 

 not only amusing, but is a study of animal 

 psychics worthy of attention. With great cau- 

 tion she reaches her arm around the mirror and 

 feels for the image. Not finding it, she peejjs 

 over, and under and around the sides of the 

 glass. To her it is a strange elusive ape, and 

 she has never become convinced that it is not 

 a real gorilla. The interest, anxiety and dis- 

 appointment in turn depicted in her black face 

 are too human-like to be imagined on the visage 

 of an ape, but she never tires of the futile 

 search. Nothing else that she sees seems to 

 interest and absorb her so profoundly as that 

 mysteriously vanishing gorilla behind tlie 

 mirror. 



The com))anion of "Dinah" is a young male, 

 perhaps not more than eight or nine months old. 

 Because of his persistent habit of charging at 



windmills in the early days of his captivity, I 

 named him Don, in honor of Don Quixote, 

 whose historic capers he so zealously emulates. 

 Don is a timid little waif ; but not malicious. 

 His nerves are highly strung and he is very 

 easily excited, but gradually he is becoming 

 more tame as he becomes accustomed to his new 

 surroundings. However, in three months he 

 has made less progress along that line than 

 Dinah did in half the time, although she was 

 much less tractable at first than he was. 



A practical joke that seems to afiford her 

 great amusement is frequently played upon her 

 little companion. While he sits quietly nib- 

 bling at some morsel of food, she rushes across 

 the cage and in passing him, throws out one 

 leg, hooks her foot about his neck and tumbles 

 him sprawling on the floor. He invariably 

 cries, and sometimes swears ; whereupon she 

 runs to him, helps him up, caresses him in a 

 motherly fashion, and then repeats the joke, 

 perhaps a dozen times in a day. 



The difference in temperament in these two 

 apes is as distinct and jironounced as that of 

 any two human children of corresponding ages. 

 Dinah is a real rollicking rowdy, with an air 

 of "rough house" in every act and gesture, 

 while Don is as prim and stoical as a wooden 

 Indian. Nothing resembling a smile ever soft- 

 ens the rigidity of his spectral countenance and 

 the deep searching stare of his grave eyes is 

 like that of an inquisitor. Dinah is as fat and 

 buxom as a pet pig. and eats like a gourmand, 

 while Don is as lean as a lath, and breaks and 

 minces his food as daintly as an epicure. She 

 eats five or six times as much as he does, and 

 if not constantly watched while eating she in- 

 variably robs him of whatever he has. 



In so far as their dietary is concerned, both 

 of these apes are now fairly well civilized, 

 which is a great consummation. They both eat 

 bread, various kinds of cooked meats either 

 fresh or cured, sweet bananas, mangoes, pine- 

 apples and other cultivated fruits in certain 

 stages of ripeness. Nevertheless, they are 

 rather capricious and sometimes fastidious 

 about their food. At one time they will eat 

 the crust of bread and refuse the crumbs, and 

 at other times they exactly reverse this order. 

 Occasionally they will eat both, and in these 

 whims they do not always act concurrently. 

 Sometimes they eat the succulent part of 

 bananas, at other times only the skin, and at 

 still others they eat only the thin inner lining 

 of the skin. On many occasions they bite off 

 the points and eat them, while at other times 

 they peel the fruit, break it in two about the 



