42 APES AND MONKEYS 



The speech used by monkeys is not of a high order, but 

 it appears to have been developed from an inferior type. 

 Some species among them have much more copious and 

 expressive forms of speech than others. From many 

 experiments with the phonograph I conclude that some 

 have much higher phonetic types than others. I have 

 found slight inflections that seem to modify the values of 

 their sounds. Certain monkeys do not make certain inflec- 

 tions at all, although in other respects the phonation of a 

 species is generally uniform. In some cases it appears that 

 the inflections differ slightly in the same species, but long 

 and constant association tends in some degree to unify 

 these dialects much the same as like causes blend and 

 unify the dialects of human speech. 



I observed one instance in which a Capuchin had acquired 

 two sounds which strictly belonged to the tongue of the 

 white-faced Cebus. At first I suspected that these sounds 

 were common to the speech of both varieties ; but on in- 

 quiry it was found that this brown Cebus had been confined 

 for some years in a cage with the white-face, during which 

 time he had acquired them. 



The most interesting case that I have to record is one in 

 which a young white-faced Cebus acquired the Capuchin 

 sound for food. This occurred under my own observation, 

 and, being attended by such conditions as to show that the 

 monkey had a motive in learning the sound, I regard it as 

 most noteworthy. 



In the room where the monkeys were kept by a dealer 

 in Washington, there was a cage containing the young 

 Cebus in question. - He was of rather more than average 



