Year: 1867

4 TAME CHIMPANZEE.


on the lst of November a negro from a
neighboring village brought me a young
male chimpanzee, about three years old,
which had been caught in the woods on the
banks of the Npoulounay about three months
previously. Thomas, for SO ] christened nv
little Protege, was tricky little rascal, and
afforded me no end of amusement; he was.
however, very tame, like all young chin
panzees. Unfortunately, Thomas was lame
IN one hand, several of the fingers having
been broken and healed up in distorted
position. This was caused by his having
been maltreated by the village dogs, who
were sent in chase of him one day, when he
escaped from his captors and ran into the
neighboring woods, l had Tom tied by a
cord to pole in the veranda of my hut, and
fed him with cooked plantains and other
food from my own table. He soon got to
prefer cooked to raw food, and rejected raw
plantains whenever they were offered to him.
The difference in tameability between the
young chimpanzee and the young gorilla is
a fact which | have confirmed by numerous
observations, and l must repeat it here, as it
was one of those points which were disputed
in my former work. A young chimpanzee
becomes tame and apparently reconciled to
captivity in two or three days after he is
brought from the woods. The young gorilla
| have never yet seen tame in confinement,
although have bad four of them in custody,
while still Of very early age.


One day | witnessed an act of Master
Thomas which seemed to me to illustrate the
habits Of his species in the wild state. A
few days after he came into my possession |
bought domestic cat for my house; as soon
as the young chimpanzee saw it he flew in
alarm to his pole and clambered up it, the
hair of his body becoming erect and his
eyes bright with excitement In a moment,
recovering himself, he came down, and rush
ing on the cat, with one of his feet seized
the nape Of the animal, and with the other
pressed on its back as if trying to break its
neck. Not wishing to lose my cat, inter-
fered and saved its life. The negroes say
that the chimpanzee attacks the leopard in
this way, and have no doubt, from what |
saw, that their statement is correct


Ny pet preserved his good health and in.
creased in intelligence and gentleness until
the departure Of Captain Vardon for Eng.
land. | then sent him home, and on his
arrival he was deposited by my friend in the
Crystal Palace at Sydenham, where. | dare
say, very many of my readers have seen him,
and have laughed at his amusing tricks. |
am credibly informed that his education at
the Palace has become SO far advanced that
he understands what is going on when his
own cartes de visite are sold. A feint is
sometimes made of carrying one off without
paying for it, but Thomas rushes forward,
screaming. to the length of his tether, to
prevent the irregular transaction. and does
MT &C g.,
tion until the money is paid down.


CURIOUS ANT-EATER.


The next morning | went with number
of men in search of the ipi From the
description given me by the native, | was
sure that l had never before met with this
species, and had some hope of its being new
to science. The paugolin genus MINIS of
geologsts) to which it belongs is very
singular group of animals. They are ant
eaters, like the M1mecophaga of South
America, being like them quite destitute of
teeth, and having long extensile tongue.
the extremity of which is covered with
glutinous secretion, by means of which thew
catch their prey. But, while the South
American ant eaters are clothed with hair.
like ordinary mammalian animals, the pan
collins have an armor of large scales i'm.
planted in the skin of the uppar surface of
the body from the head to the tip of the tall
and imbricated or overlapping, like the
states on the roof of house. The animals
look, at first sight like curious heavy bodied
lizards, but they have warm blood, and
nourish their young like the rest of the
mammalia.


The ipi lives in burrows in the earth. or
sometimes in the large hollows of colossal
trunks of trees which have fallen to the
ground The burrows that | saw were in
light soil on the slope of a hill There are
two holes to each gallery, one for entrance
and the other for exit. This is necessary,
on account of the animal being quite incapable
of curving its tody sideways, so that it can
not turn itself in its burrow he bodies of
pangolins are very flexible vertically, that is.
they can roll themselves up into ball, and
coil and uncoil themselves very readily. but
they cannot turn round within the confined
limits OF their burrows. In hunting them
we bad first to ascertain. by the foot marks
or more readily by the marks left bv the trail
OF the tail, which was the entrance and
which the exit cf the burrow. and then
making trap at the one end. drive them
out by the smoke of fire at the other after.
ward securing them with ropes. The fresh.
ness OF the tracks told us that the animal had
entered It's burrows the previous evening.
for l must add that the ipi is nocturnal IN
its habits, sleeping in its burrow. throughout
the day. When it wanders at night the
natives say they can hear the rattling of its
large scales.


A long and wearisome days hunt produced
no fruit. We wandered over hill and dalp
through the forest and streams, leaving the
beaten paths, and struggling for 6ours
through the tangled maze, with no other re-.
suit than to tear our clothes to rags. and
cover ourselves with scratches from the
thorns and cutting edges of sword-like
grasses which grew in many places. new
ertheless persevered. searching the whole
country for many miles round. and had. at
any rate, the melancholy satisfaction of feel
ing that | was hardening myself for anv
amount of endurance that might he reouired
in my future explorat ons. At length. on
the 5th of March, l was rewarded bv find.
ing two specimens, an adult female and q