156 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



far too important a person to be overlooked. Not that Georgie will 

 thrust himself upon one's attention, so to speak, for he is far too 

 sedate and retiring for that, and he nearly always requires a deal 

 of persuasive coaxing before he can be tempted from his snug indoor 

 apartment from whence he surveys his visitors with a critical eye. 

 He is a Baboon, this big fellow, and has been called "extraordinarily 

 hideous." It is not proposed to apply this somewhat unkind 

 appellation to Georgie, for although, compared with a beautiful 

 bird, he may not strike one as particularly attractive, there is some- 

 thing about him that appeals to the devout lover of animals which 

 makes it impossible to correctly apply the title quoted to this hand- 

 some beast. A wag at the Zoo more correctly referred to it as an 

 animal of East and West, showing a sunrise in front and a sunset 

 behind ! 



The coloured frontispiece will convey a far better idea than any 

 written description of the general app-earance of the Mandrill. He 

 is about three feet in height, of bulky build and possessed of great 

 powers of strength. In colour he is mostly olive-brown, with 

 silvery-grey below, but the most^striking parts are the brilliant blue 

 ridges and scarlet on the front of the face ; the purplish-red of the 

 hinder portions of the body, the tuft of hair on the head, and the 

 deep setting of the eyes arched with overhanging eyebrows. 



Georgie at the Zoo must look to his laurels, for another Mandrill 

 has recently arrived which shows a friendliness for visitors which 

 may make him eventually a general favourite, and on a recent 

 occasion this smaller specimen evidently enjoyed a brief interview 

 with the writer, in the course of which the sagacious creature 

 uttered curious sounds as if endeavouring to articulate some of its 

 secrets to the interested onlooker. Yet, we are told, it must not 

 be trusted, for, on the least provocation, it bursts into a temper 

 and endeavours to frighten a person by wild gestures calculated 

 to inspire fear in the more timorous visitors. Notwithstanding this, 

 in a wild state the Mandrill is a coward, for, when attacked, he will 

 beat a hasty retreat, and, like some boys I used to know at school, 

 will take to hurling missiles from a safe cover rather than have a 

 straight, stand-up fight in the open. 



The Mandrill's native home is in West Africa, where, like other 

 Baboons, he travels about in troops, and is closely related to a 

 second species in which the prefix Man is dropped, the animal being 

 known as the Drill. 



