File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17974682890).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo18amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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XOTES ON AFRICAN MONKEYS 673 have to Imri-y. One night we were awakened by a great commotion among tlie baboons. In the morning we found that a leopard had been there, and after that the baboon family did not come to its tree. The natives are very iniuli afraid of these baboons, which not only come down into the gardens and eat the corn and dig up the sweet potatoes, bnt also sometimes carry away little chil- dren. The old male is frightful to be- hold, a very vicious aninml with long- fangs. When we Avere hunting in a forest of Uganda, the natives came to us begging that we kill some baboons which had taken a child and which they could not drive out of their gardens. One of these baboons, later shot by Mr. Akelej', was the largest we had ever seen. About the camp fire at night wc never tired of talking over what we knew of the ways of these monkeys and of the other creatures in the African wilderness and of relating tales of our daily adventures. One evening the talk chanced to turn upon our zoological gardens at home in America, and we al 1 fully and emphatically agreed that we did not believe in taking back these free creatures, monkeys, lions, elephants, or any others, to unnatural conditions and a life of captivity and homesickness. Some of the party cited the monkeys of our "zoos" as especially pitiable under the conditions of their imprisonment, so much so that there had been created in the minds of many people a feeling of repugnance for the whole monkey race. At this point I decided that I would capture and introduce to the company a icild, free monkey for com- parison. But I had no idea at the time that the captive would prove of interest to me for so long a period of years. So J. T. was brought into camp just to let the friends who were with us. Mr. J. T. McCutcheon and Mr. Fred Stephenson, see the diffefcnce between a wild monkey and the zoological park specimen. Our porters made a basket- like trap and baited it with corn, and till' monkey was only frightened when the basket fell snugly over her. We judged she was six or eight months old; and she surely was just as saucy as she could be. She was not afraid of
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An afternoon cmU ou :i little Boer girl of the Uasin Gishu Plateau (note the tender pride of guardianship in Allie's face). Monkeys are suspicious of strangers, even of monliey stran- gers outside their own clan, but they possess an underlying sociability easily developed into friendship, Tliey have long memories for both people and their acts, and have been known to repay a grudge as well as a kindness after a considerable lapse of time. Among one another the members of any band of monkeys are likely to be aflfectionate. and monkeys probably make better mothers than many of the natives we saw in Africa. .J. T. undoubtedly was lonesome for, because of the expedition's rapid change of base, she could rarely have other monkeys to play with for more than a week or two at a time

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