OF WILD ANIMALS 313 



but if so, how was it acquired? The natives of the chimp 

 country do not have many firearms, and the white man's 

 guns have been seen and heard by not more than one out of 

 every thousand of that chimp population. 



Baboons Throw Stones. So far as we are aware, baboons 

 are the only members of the Order Primates who ever de- 

 liberately throw missiles as means of offense. In 1922 there 

 was in the New York Zoological Park a savage and aggressive 

 Rhodesian baboon (Choiropithecus rhodesia, Haagner) which 

 throws stones at people whenever he can get hold of such 

 missiles. We have seen him set up against Keeper Palmer and 

 Curator Ditmars a really vigorous bombardment with stones 

 and coal that had been supplied him. His throw was by 

 means of a vigorous underhand pitch, and but for the inter- 

 vening bars he woxild have done very good execution. 



Keeper Rawlinson, of the Primate House, who was in the 

 Boer War, states that on one occasion when his company was 

 deplo3ring along the steep side of a rock-covered kopje a troop 

 of baboons above them rolled and threw so many stones down 

 at the men that finally two machine guns were let loose on the 

 savage beasts to disperse them. 



