1906.] OF MONKEYS IN THE MENAGERIE. 567 



cocious, but to what extent this was due to the greater solicitude 

 of the mother in keeping the baby with her, either to protect it 

 from the cold * or from the Monkeys in the adjoining cages, it is 

 impossible to say. Certain it is, however, that long after the 

 baby was able to crawl the mother habitually frustrated its 

 efforts at independence by pulling it to her side before it could 

 get out of arm's reach. The male took no share in nursing or 

 tending to the young. He treated it with complete indifference, 

 and with good-humoured tolerance allowed it to take the liberty 

 later on of climbing over his back and pulling his hair. When 

 sleeping, the parents usually sat front to front with the little one 

 between them, completely concealed by their long and thick coats 

 of hair. In addition to nursing and suckling the baby in the 

 usual way, the mother kept it clean, as clogs and cats clean their 

 puppies and kittens, namely by licking up the excrement and 

 urine while being passed. It was amusing to see her every now 

 and again seize the baby by the tail and inspect its hind-quarters 

 for indications of excretion. 



I have never seen the young Macaques suck more than one teat 

 at a time. In this they differ from the baby Vervet {Cerco- 

 2)ithecus lalandii) born in the Gardens in 1893, which is alleged 

 to have held both nipples in its mouth at once (P. Z. S. 1893, 

 p. 615). They soon began to feed on their own. account. 

 When four weeks old the baby Rhesus x Common Macaque 

 helped himself to his mother's bread and milk and at two months 

 was trying, albeit inefi'ectually, to crack nuts. I did not see the 

 young Japanese Macaque eat anything until six weeks old. At 

 five months he was still being suckled. He was weaned when he 

 was between seven and eight months old. 



Age of Monkeys. 



I am not aware of any statistics as to longevity in Monkeys. 

 It is interesting therefore to put on record the fact that Col. S. 

 M. Benson kept, he informs me, a Rhesus Macaque alive for 

 twenty-eight years. The animal ultimately died of heart disease, 

 and was probably about twenty-nine years old at the time. 



Supplement by Dr. E. J. Steegmann f. 



My experience of birth amongst Monkeys is limited to one kind, 

 the common Indian Rhesus, and the cases are few in number. 

 All the females that gave birth to young ones were already 

 pregnant when I bought them, and I have absolutely failed to 



* This Monkey, be it remembered, was born on Jan. 10 in an unwarmed 

 open-air cage separated by wire partitions from cag-es to the right and left, containing 

 Uaboons and Monkeys of diverse species. The baby of the Rhesus, on the contrary, 

 was born on April 27th in a warmed house, and two days afterwards was transferred 

 with its mother to a cage boarded off from adjoining cages. 



f These notes were kindly compiled by Dr. Steegmann in reply to certain definite 

 questions on matters about which my knowledge was defective or my observations 

 wanted confirming. 



