566 ■ mr. r. i. poc'ock on the breeding [ma,y 15, 



Condition and Behaviour of the Young at and after Birth. 



At birth, Monkeys of the genera Macacus and Cercopithecus 

 are clothed with hair not differing materially in thickness, length, 

 and distribution from that of their parents. In this respect they 

 differ markedly from newly boi^n Chimpanzees, which, as I am 

 told by Dr. Steegmann, are nearly naked at birth. The smallest 

 Chimpanzees that have come under my notice were thickly coated 

 like the adults, with the exception of one young female, perhaps 

 fi'om twelve to eighteen months old, in which the head was bald, 

 but became covered subsequent!}-. Dr. Steegmann, on the contrary, 

 has had in his hands newly imported specimens, believed to be 

 about six ixionths old, which were almost destitute of hair. Thus, 

 in the nakedness of the young, Chimpanzees are more like Man 

 than they are like Cercopithecine Monkeys. They show, indeed, 

 the commencement of the postponement in the growth of the 

 body-hair characteristic of Man, where, apart from its local 

 development at puberty in both sexes, it only appears with any 

 degree of luxuriance upon the appendages, ventral svirface, and 

 to a lesser degree upon the back in some, mostly middle-aged or 

 old males *. 



In the young of the Japanese Macaque and in the hybrid 

 M. 7'hesus X M.fascictdaris the colour differs considerably from 

 that of the adults of these species. The hairs are uniformly 

 tinted throughout, being in the first-mentioned form olive- grey, 

 and in the second blackish grey, without gloss and without any 

 subapical pale area. 



As recorded by Dr. H. O. Forbes, this was previously known to 

 be the case in the Japanese Macaque, as also was the absence of 

 the red hue in the face. It was not, however, previously known, 

 so far as I am aware, that the infant coat is moulted during the 

 fifth month and gradually replaced by a coat resembling in colour 

 that of the parents. The little Japanese Macaque was born on 

 Jan. 10th, and the moulting which set in near the begiiniing of 

 May was finished by the end of that month, with the exception of a 

 dark tuft of hair on each cheek, which was unchanged by the end 

 of September. 



Newly born Macaques differ extraordinarily in the matter of 

 activity and independence from human babies, which remain prac- 

 tically helpless for at least a year. The Monkeys are able soon 

 after birth to maintain a secure hold of their mother by clutching 

 the hair of her sides with hands and feet, and within a week can 

 crawl feebly about unaided. This was particularly noticeable in 

 the case of the young Rhesus x Common Macaque, which I saw 

 trying to creep over the straw of her cage when only four days 

 old. When between four and five weeks old it could climb up the 

 bars and about the perches of the cage with considerable activity 

 and skill. The young Japanese Macaque appeared to be less pre- 



* This remark applies particularly to the xanthochroic and melanochroic Euro- 

 peans, and still more so to the Tcdas of Hindostan and to the Ainos of N. Japan. 



