34:8 MOXKEVS AND THE FEAR OF SNAKES. 



Bat "instinct" is a difficult conception, especially in the mental 

 field of higher animals where experience plays a dominating part.. 

 For some yeai's I have been waiting an opportunity to see if a 

 monkey born here nnd reared without any individual experience 

 of snakes would display an instinctive dread of them. That 

 opportunity has not yet occurred. But last year, in January, a 

 young male chimpanzee was sent to us, the youngest I have ever 

 seen, and so small a baby that it seemed not much more than 

 weaned. It thi-ived in the Ape House, soon lost its shyness, 

 and became quite lively and intelligent. In the course of the 

 summer, with Mr. Boulenger, I took a very active tree-boa to it. 

 Mr. Boulenger held the chimpanzee and I had the snake twisted 

 round my arm, with its head and about 2 feet of neck pro- 

 truding. I put it cautiously near the chimpanzee, who leaned 

 out towards it: I allowed the flickering tongue of the snake 

 actually to touch the chimpanzee's face ; the latter showed no- 

 sign of alarm and was quite ready to kiss the snake's mouth. It 

 was clear that, in this case, no particle of dread of the serpent was 

 present. Since then, the chimpanzee has on several occasions 

 been shown snakes, including a large King snake. The latter he 

 handles quite freely, plays with it and pulls it about. 



It is possible that this case is an example of failure of the 

 development of a normal instinct in an individual. This may be 

 true, and I do not wish to found a-general conclusion on a single 

 example. But so far as the evidence goes, it would appea,r that 

 the dread of snakes is not instinctive in chimpanzees. As it is 

 certainly present in the older chimpanzees on Avhich I have made 

 the experiment, the alternative is to suppose it an acquisition due 

 to experience or the imitation of other ciiimpanzees which have 

 had individual experience. 



