The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-03-07
APES RESEMBLING MEN
The Most Interesting of Borneo's Apes That
lnhabit Its Swamps and JungIes
Selected
Selected

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Sarawak region in Borneo, ruled
over by the Brooke family, is famous
hunting ground of naturalists, SAYS the
New York Evening Post One of the
best books on zoology and biology of
the island that has yet appeared comes
in Robert W. G. Shelford's "A Naturalist
in Borneo."
Shelford was for seven years, follow
ing 1897, the curator of Rajah Brooke's
museum, and, as an active and indefatig
able curio man, he had extraordinary
opportunities of studying the wild life
of the island.
The most interesting of Borneo's ami
mails are the mammals and especially the
simians, and here Mr.. Shelford offers
some information that is quite new upon
the maias-as he insists what is ordinary
called the gibbon, and the macaque. The
first is not easily studied. Il want to
know how many wives he keeps and
how he treats them," one Englishman
asked; but until men can acquire arbo-
real habits such things will remain
mysteries. The maias are quick travel.
ers in the tree-tops; they love swamp re-
glons, where men can move but slowly,
and they are remarkably inconspicuous
IN the foliage; they are fruit eaters of
dainty habits, and seldom stay long in
one locality. Each night they make a
small nest by bending down small
branches, to form platform in the
fork of a Dough, and with the feet and
hands tightly clasping the limbs 90 to
sleep. A young maias that Shelford
kept as pet always slept in an empty
room furnished with an iron bedstead.
"On the steel laths of this the ape would
$3.50; he invariably sprawIed on the fiat
of his back, pulled over his head and
chest piece of sacking with which he
was provided, and with hands and feet
secured good grip on the posts and
frame of the bed In few minutes he
would be asleep and his snoring was so
loud that it could be heard nearly all
over the house." The maias make a
good pet, being clearly, affectionate
and more intelligent than any other an
imal except man. Mr.. Shelford gives
the impression that watching young
maias is like watching baby not quite
so young; the interplay of reason and
instinct is much the same.
The gibbon has less intelligence but is
distinguished by the musical morning
cry with which the jungle fairly rings
at dawn-a cry more powerful than the
songs of birds to bring the sluggard out
to enjoy the most salubrious part of the
Bornean day. But the macaque has
apparently, again, good deal of sense.
He alone of the three will, given
bowl of water, lift it with his hand and
drink man fashion. He can be trained
to pick cocoanuts, the modos operandi
being very simple.
A cord is fastened about the monkeys
waist and he is sent up palm, where
he begins laying hold of nuts.
If the owner thinks particular nut
ripe he shouts, and down it comes; if it
is unripe, he plucks the cord and the
monkey goes on to another. Some
times the cord is dispensed with entirely
and the monkey submits to his masters
voice, something like gee and 'haw.'
probably representing ripe and unripe
respectively. We are not told that any
macaques have been developed which
are able to use trustworthy judgment
of their own as to the ripeness of cocoa
nuts; but the practice of eugenics upon
few generations of these monkeys
should do as much.
The name of Alaska is said to have