MUSICAL SENSE 35 



be a wide range of tastes. In this respect they vary much 

 the same as human beings do. The same is true of their 

 mental powers in general. With some monkeys the choice 

 of color is much more definite and of dimension much more 

 certain than in others, and most of them appear to assign 

 to different numbers a difference of value. 



Some monkeys are talkative and others taciturn. Some 

 of them are vicious and some stolid, while others are as 

 playful as kittens and as cheerful as sunshine. I regard 

 the Cebus as the most intelligent of monkeys. In fact I 

 have called him a The Caucasian of monkeys." The new 

 world monkeys seem to be more intelligent and more 

 loquacious than the old world stock, but this remark does 

 not include the anthropoid apes. 



As a test of the musical taste of monkeys, I took three 

 little bells and suspended them by a like number of strings. 

 The bells were all alike except that from two of them the 

 clappers had been removed. Dropping the bells through 

 the meshes of the cage at a distance of ten or twelve 

 inches apart, the monkey was allowed to play with them. 

 He soon discovered the one containing the clapper. He 

 played with it and became quite absorbed with it. He 

 was then attracted to another part of the cage, during 

 which time the position of the bells was changed. On his 

 return he found his favorite bell without a clapper. He 

 then turned to another, and then another, until he found 

 the one with the clapper. This indicated that the sound 

 emitted by the bell was at least a part of its attraction. 



During the time that I used the phonograph in studying 

 the monkeys, I repeated many musical records to them 



