INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 
wings and tail by fluttering and jumping about, almost 
living without food, or throwing the food about on the 
bottom of its cage, such determined resistance does this 
little bird sometimes display to being kept a prisoner ; yet, 
on the other hand, we find other individuals of the same 
species, caught on the same day, in the same locality and 
under the same circumstances, and treated alike in every 
particular, exhibit a mild and gentle disposition, take 
readily to the food offered, soon become perfectly tame, 
come on the hand without fear, and sing night and day 
for many weeks. Such are the well-known facts to all 
persons who have taken the pains and trouble to keep 
in a state of captivity this much-admired and well-known 
songster. 
A remarkable and strikingly illustrative example of 
this kind is well known to the writer. With reference to 
the wonderful performing monkeys so frequently exhibited 
in the streets of London and elsewhere, few persons are 
at all aware that the men who exhibit these intelligent 
and well-trained animals have had nothing whatever to 
do with their first teaching. The fact is that the teaching 
of performing monkeys is a profession, and the persons 
most skilful in the art have a school for the training and 
teaching the various kinds of performance these animals 
are intended to go through in after life. 
The secrets and mysteries of this profession are most 
carefully guarded, for the business is one of great profit, 
for a monkey whose value when untaught is but a few 
shillings, when properly trained and well educated, will sell 
readily for £50. 
It is a well-known fact that many monkeys are incapable 
of being taught, and it not unfrequently happens that 
the teachers, after having purchased a stock of young 
monkeys on their arrival in this country, soon discover 
205 
