MENTAL LIFE OF MONKEYS AND APES 119 



tionally quiet and gentle male (not the father of the infant) 

 who is designated in Hamilton's paper as Monkey 28, Scotty. 



" My notes record the following exceptionally interesting and 

 genetically important behavior. On March 1, when I approached 

 her cage, Gertie was sitting on the floor with the infant held in 

 one hand while she fingered its eyelids and eyes with the other. 

 Scotty sat close beside her watching intently. When disturbed 

 by me the mother carried her infant to a shelf at the top of the 

 cage. Repeatedly attempts were made to remove the dead baby, 

 but they were futile because Gertie either held it in her hands or 

 sat close beside it ready to seize it at the slightest disturbance. 



" Especially noteworthy on this, the second day after the 

 birth of the infant, are the male's, as well as the female's, keen 

 interest in the body and their frequent examinations of the 

 eyes, as if in attempts to open them. Often, also, the mother 

 searched the body for fleas. 



" Observations were made from day to day, and each day 

 opportunity was sought to remove the body without seriously 

 frightening or exciting the female. No such opportunity came, 

 and during the second week the corpse so far decomposed that, 

 with constant handling and licking by the adults, it rapidly 

 wore away. By the third week there remained only the shriv- 

 eled skin covering a few fragments of bone, and the open skull 

 from the cavity of which the brain had been removed. This 

 the mother never lost sight of: even when eating she either 

 held it in one hand or foot, or laid it beside her within easy reach. 



" Gradually this remnant became still further reduced until 

 on March 31 there existed only a strip of dry skin about four 

 inches long with a tail-like appendage of nearly the Same length. 



" The male, Scotty, on this date was removed to another cage. 

 Gertie made a great fuss, jumping about excitedly and uttering 

 plaintive cries when she discovered that her mate was gone. 

 Whenever I approached her cage she scurried into the shelter 

 box and stayed there while I was near. This behavior I never 

 before had observed. It continued for two days. On April 2, 

 it was noted that she had lost her recently acquired shyness 

 and she no longer made any attempts to avoid me. As usual, 

 on this date, she was carrying the remnant about with her. 



" The following day, April 3, Gertie was lured from her cage 

 to a large adjoining compartment for certain experimental obser- 



