18 



THE APES AND MONKEYS. 



istio 

 Traits. 



the rain. His hair is olive-black, his face hairless 

 and flesh-colored, and his buttocks white." 



Character- Savage, who made his observations in 

 Lower Guinea, writes : " We cannot say- 

 that the Chimpanzee is a gregarious 

 animal, as there are seldom more than five, or, at the 

 utmost, ten living together. Relying upon trust- 

 worthy reports, I may say, though, that they some- 

 times gather in greater numbers for play. One of 

 my narrators claims to have seen at one time about 

 fifty of them which had assembled on trees and 

 amused themselves with screaming and drumming 

 on the tree-trunks. They avoid human habitations 

 as much as they can. Their dwellings, which are 

 more nest-like than hut-like, they build on trees, not 

 at a great height from the ground. They break and 

 twist and cross larger and smaller branches, and sup- 

 port the whole on an embranchment, or on a strong 

 bough. Sometimes you find such a nest at the end 

 of a bough, twenty or thirty feet from the ground, but 

 I have seen some that could not be less than forty 

 feet high. They do not care for a permanent home, 

 but change abiding places often in looking for food 

 or for other reasons. We frequently saw them in the 

 mountains, probably because the valleys, more favor- 

 able to the agriculture of the natives, lacked the 

 trees necessary for their nest-building. Two or more 

 nests are rarely seen in the same tree or even in the 

 same neighborhood, though five were once found 

 together. Nests, properly so-called, consisting of 

 interwoven branches, as Du Chaillu describes, have 

 not been seen by any of the other narrators." 



When in repose the Chimpanzee in the wild state 

 usually assumes a sitting posture. He is often seen 

 standing or wa,lking, but the minute he is detected, 

 drops on all fours and flees. As may be supposed 

 from his nest building, the Chimpanzee is an adept 

 at climbing. In his play he swings himself from tree 

 to tree and jumps with amazing agility. His food 

 probably is the same as that of the Gorilla, — fruits, 

 nuts, buds and, perhaps, roots, forming the staple 

 articles of diet. 

 The Chimpan- The Chimpanzee is made a captive 

 zee in oftener than the other Man-like Apes, 

 Captivity, but unfortunately does not live over 

 two or three years in that state, although it is said 

 that in west Africa he has lived over twenty years 

 in captivity. Captive Chimpanzees under obser- 

 vation have so far always shown themselves gentle, 

 clever and amiable. Degrandpre saw on a ship a 

 female which performed various tasks. Buffon re- 

 lates that his Chimpanzee had a sad and serious look, 

 and moved about in a dignified manner. He had not 

 a single one of the nasty qualities of the Baboons, 

 neither was he so playful as the Guenons. He was 

 very obedient, shook hands with people, ate at the 

 table, used his napkin, poured out \yine for himself, 

 got a cup and saucer when he wanted tea, put in 

 the sugar and always waited for the tea to get cold. 

 He never harmed any one, but had a very modest, 

 gentle bearing, and delighted in being petted. 



Out of all the numerous stories about the Chim- 

 panzee we select here the accounts of the celebrated 

 Sainter of animals, Fr. Specht, concerning one in 

 fill's Zoological Garden in Stuttgart. This Chim- 

 panzee, as Specht afiirms, could laugh like a human 

 being : " I took notice of this, for no other animal 

 <can show its joy by loud laughter. When I would 

 take this sympathetic fellow under the arms, throw 

 him in the air and catch him, the cage rang with 

 his merry peals of laughter. One day I brought a 



piece of chalk along, and sat down on a chair. In 

 a moment he was sitting on my knees awaiting 

 further developments. I put the chalk in his hand, 

 and leading it, drew several figures on the wall, 

 when I let go of his hand, he started to shade the 

 drawings with such diligence that they soon dis- 

 appeared, to the great amusement of the spectators. 

 There are now two Chimpanzees in the Stuttgart 

 Zoological Garden, which are the closest of friends. 

 The female had been there before, and when the 

 male arrived his box was put over night in her warm, 

 roomy cage, the presentation being intended for the 

 morrow. When the box, which, by the way, had 

 been upholstered, was opened and the male got out, 

 they both stood on their hind legs for a few minutes 

 earnestly gazing at each other. Then they flew into 

 each other's embrace and exchanged hearty and re- 

 peated kisses ; and the female brought her blanket, 

 spread it on the floor, sat down on it and by gestures 

 invited the male to do likewise. It makes a charm- 

 ing picture to see these two taking their meals at 

 a table. They both use spoons and do not \n the 

 least interfere with each other. The female has the 

 peculiarity of cautiously taking the male's glass and 

 drinking a goodly portion out of that, too, after 

 which she returns it. She evidently does not want 

 him to drink too much. Both these animals laugh 

 heartily when at play. 



I u n I •' The same fate has befallen Chimpanzees 

 Hir. Lrowiey bought to the United States as was met by 

 Noni Vn t thosc taken to Europe. All will readily 

 new lorn. ^.^^.^jj ^^^ ^^^^ attractive fellow, " Mr. Crow- 

 ley," so long the chief object of admiration in the museum of 

 Central Park, New York. This Chimpanzee was greatly at- 

 tached to his keeper and displayed a readiness and agility in 

 performing amusing tricks that won the attention of every one. 

 He acquired a number of accomplishments in the way of eating 

 and drinking, and displayed, until the ravages of disease spoiled 

 his temper, a mildness of disposition that charmed his daily 

 visitors. " Mr. Crowley " had two attacks of pneumonia before 

 his final, fatal illness, consumption, that nearly certain enemy 

 of all Apes in captivity. "Miss Kitty," a less amiable, ana, 

 therefore, less attractive Chimpanzee, was his companion for 

 awhile, but she, too, shared the same fate as the idolized " Mr. 

 Crowley." _ Two Chimpanzees which kept house in a cage in 

 the zoological gardens at Cincinnati were very accomplished. 

 They would sit comfortably eating together in a manner similar 

 to that of the Apes of the Stuttgart Museum as illusti^Lted on 

 page 15. They would also disport themselves for quite long 

 periods by rocking themselves in chairs, human fashion, but 

 would then show their Ape nature by clambering over the backs 

 of the chairs with great agility, besides performing many other 

 tricks which made them the great attraction of the pleasant 

 and well-stocked zoological gardens in which they were kept 

 Death severed the pair. Barnum, the American showman, had 

 two Chimpanzees, "Nip" and"Tuck," on exhibition in various 

 towns and cities in this country, but they did not display the 

 intelligence shown by " Mr. Crowley;" nor did they liv'e for a 

 great while." Perhaps their narrow quarters in a cage and con- 

 , stant traveling combined to sour their tempers and limit their 

 capacity for learning. Other attempts to mtroduce the' Chim- 

 panzee into this country have not been encouraging, lack of 

 understanding of the habits of the animal being in some meas- 

 ure the cause ; but it is a fact that this Ape does much bfetter in 

 warmer and drier climates like Paris than in that of England 

 and the colder parts of the continent of Europe and the north- 

 ern states of this country. The experiment of keeping one has 

 not been tried in the South, which is to be deplored, lor there 

 are doubtless cities in the southern states where the climatic 

 conditions would prove to be especially favorable for keeping 

 Apes much longer than is possible in the more northern zoo- 

 logical collections, which have never been able to keep speci- 

 mens of the anthropomorphous Apes for any extended period. 



THE ORANG-UTAN. 



The most important Asiatic Man-like Ape is the 

 Orang-utan (Man of the Woods), sometimes incor- 

 rectly called Orang-Utang, and named Mias or 

 Majas in Borneo {Pithecus satyrus). He is distin- 

 guished by his disproportionately long arms, reach- 



