METHODS OF DEFENCE. 75 



In all the preceding examples the social species 

 unite for the common security the forces and effects 

 which they can derive from their own organs. 



I have spoken of the Apes and described how they 

 defend themselves with their hands and teeth; but in 

 certain cases they use weapons, employing foreign 

 objects like a club or like projectiles. 



Acts of this nature are considered to indicate a 

 high degree of development, and it has often been 

 repeated that they are the appanage of man alone ; 

 we have, however, seen the Toxotes, who, like all 

 fishes, is not particularly intelligent, squirt water on 

 to his victims. It is not easy to understand how a 

 greater intellectual effort is required to throw a stone 

 with the hand than to project water with the mouth. 

 This is what the apes do, throwing on their assailants 

 from the heights of trees everything which comes 

 to hand : cocoa-nuts, hard fruits, fragments of 

 wood, etc. 



Baboons {Cynocephalt) who usually live in the 

 midst of rocks protect their retreat by rolling very 

 heavy blocks on to their aggressors, or by forcibly 

 throwing stones about the size of the fist. As these 

 bands may contain from a hundred to one hundred 

 and fifty individuals, it is a veritable hail of stones of 

 all sizes which they roll down from the heights of the 

 mountains where they find shelter. 



Sentinels. — Not only do Apes know how to face 

 danger or to avoid it by a prudent flight, but they 

 also seek to foresee it, and to avoid exposing them- 

 selves to it. A troop of Apes, according to Brehm, 

 generally places the leadership in the hands of a 

 robust and experienced male. This primitive royalty 

 is founded partly on the confidence inspired by an 



