THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 39 



and had announced as my belief that no mon- 

 key ever acquired the sounds made by another 

 species, or, indeed, ever tried to do so. I admit, 

 however, that this one instance alone is suffi- 

 cient to cause me to recede from a conclusion thus 

 rendered untenable, and the short time in which 

 this one feat was accomplished would indicate 

 that the difficulty was not so great as I had re- 

 garded it. I still regard it as a rule, however, 

 that monkeys do not learn each other's speech, 

 but the rule is not without exceptions. 



I have observed and called attention to the 

 fact, that when two monkeys of different species 

 are caged together, each one will learn to under- 

 stand the speech of the other, but as a rule will 

 not try to speak it. When he replies at all, it is 

 always in his own vernacular. I wish to impress 

 the fact that monkeys do not generally carry on a 

 connected conversation. Their speech is usually 

 limited to a single sound or remark, which is 

 replied to in the same manner, and to suppose that 

 their conversations are elaborate or of a highly 

 social character is to go beyond the bounds of 

 reason. This is the respect in which the masses 

 fail to understand the real nature of the speech 

 of monkevs or other animals. 



