HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
Letter from Professor Keith, Conservator 
of Museum, Royal College of 
Surgeons, on 
THE KINDS OF CHIMPANZEE. 
Dear Mr. Hamlyn, 
I am sure that all who are connected with 
Natural History Museums welcome the appearance 
of your "Menagerie Magazine," and wish it a 
real and permanent success. By no other means 
can we hope to unite the interests of the profes- 
sional trader and the professional student. In 
reality we are all students — trading naturalists and 
museum naturalists, and for the progress of 
knowledge — and the enlistment of a healthy and 
liberal public interest — it is absolutely necessary 
that we should all work together. I can best illus- 
trate my meaning by referring to an interesting and 
profitable visit I made to your establishment a 
few days ago. You have at present three young 
chimpanzees — probably the most interesting group 
of anthropoids now in Europe or America. They 
are so different in appearance and also in their 
'disposition's that one naturally concludes that 
they represent three different kinds of chimpan- 
zee, different varieties or even, perhaps, different 
species. 
The youngest one, "Zoe," with all the cling- 
ing habits of a baby, is just completing her milk 
set of teeth — the canine or eye teeth and the 
second moilar or chewing teeth are cut and just 
coming into place; I suppose her to be a little over 
a year in age — perhaps 15 months; at a corres- 
ponding stage of tooth development a human child 
would be about two years of age. 
Now that brings me to my first question : Are 
chimpanzee babies born at any season as human 
babies are, or do they come, as is the custom 
among wild animals, at one season? Suppose 
that my estimate of her age is right, then she 
would have been born a little over a year ago — that 
is in one of the later months of 1914 — when the 
scaffolding of our European civilization was being 
shattered by Germany. We have very little in- 
formation concerning the season at which the 
young of chimpanzees are born, but I am certain 
that there are many naturalists who trade with 
the West Coast of Africa could help us in settling 
this matter. No one ever brought back from 
Africa so great a store of knowledge relating to 
gorillas and chimpanzees than Du Chaillu; his 
book, published in 1861, is still our chief diction- 
ary of anthropoid lore, but he made no enquiry 
relating to a breeding lime. In the month of May 
,Ou Chaillu shot a mother chimpanzee with a baby 
at breast, about one foot in length, which 1 esti- 
mate to have been 5 or 6 months old. That obser- 
vation points to a birth season about November 
or December. 
The two other anthropoids in your possession 
— -"Gilbert," a lively frolicsome fellow, and 
"Philip," who is morose, rather sulky and shy — 
are further advanced than "Zoe." In both of 
them the first tooth of the permanent set — the 
first molars or chewing teeth — are coming into 
use. From enquiries I made, over 20 years ago 
now, I was led to believe that such animals were 
at the end of their third or beginning of their 
fourth year. They would, therefore, belong to 
the chimpanzee brood of November or Decem- 
ber, 1912; — the difference between " Zoe" and them 
representing the growth of two years. Now I do 
not say that we have as yet any good grounds for 
believing in a definite breeding season amongst 
chimpanzees and gorillas, but I am certain there 
must be among your readers several who could 
help in settling the matter. 
Your three chimpanzees also raise for us 
another vexed question. They are very different 
in their pigmentation. " Zoe" has a pale face; 
"Gilbert's faceis darkening; "Philip's" face is 
becoming covered with black pigmented spots. 
Their noses are not shaped alike; their hair differs 
in texture and in abundance; "Gilbert's" hair is 
darker, longer, rougher, and more plentiful. The 
explanation which appeals to one most is to sup- 
pose that all three represent different varieties or 
even species. 
Zoologists and Naturalists are well aware 
that Lord Rothschild is keenly interested in the 
races, varieties and species of anthropoid apes. 
Twelve years ago he contributed a very important 
paper to the proceedings of the Zoological Society 
of London in which he sought to show that there 
are at least live quite distinct species of chimpan- 
zee, and that some of these species are sub- 
divided into as many as four distinct varieties. 
He has taken great care to gather accurate infor- 
mation, and has spent liberally in collecting speci- 
mens from all parts. Lord Rothschild would be 
the first to admit that we have still much to learn 
concerning the matter of species, and we can only 
hope to settle our doubts by the help of those who 
gather and import specimens from their native 
haunts in Africa. 
We can best realize the nature of our present 
difficulties if we suppose that a very intelligent 
chimpanzee has become director of Jungle 
Museum. He receives stray specimens of human 
beings collected by chimpanzee sailor men on a 
visit to Europe. I am pretty certain our jungle 
director would make many mistakes when he came 
to sort us out into varieties and species if he fol- 
lowed the method we have adopted. A bald head 
would seem to hini a very distinct character, and 
he would probably group all the bald heads to- 
gether whether they came from England, Russia 
or Italy. He would note there were long faced 
