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Show SOME USEFUL MONKEYS. At a recent meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Mr. L. Schwendler gave an instance of a Langur monkey Semuopithecus entellus) having been taught to do useful work. Mr. Schwendler's "trustworthy informant" was Babu B. Pyne, a member of the Government Telegraph Department. The Babu says: "Some years ago I had a Langur, which, when standing erect measured fully two feet six inches. The animal was very powerful, and could easily pull a punkah measuring eight feet in length. It was a male, and even when young showed a disposition to be highly savage. The older it got the more savage it became. Seeing the great power this monkey had, I wanted to utilize it, and, therefore intended to employ it for the purpose of pulling punkhas. The monkey was tied by the waist close to a strong pole, so that it could not move either backwards or forwards, or right or left. Both hands were tied to a rope attached to a punkha, which was regularly pulled from either side by a man. Thus the animal had to sit in one place, and could only move his hands up and down with the punkha rope. In this way the monkey in a comparatively short time learned to pull the punkha by itself, and was so employed by me for several years. It always kept in first rate health, enjoyed its work immensely, and did it equally well, if not better, than a cooley. During the rains it suffered from fever and ultimately died. Putting now this trained monkey in the place where the man used to pull the punkha, and a new Langur in the place where the trained monkey formerly sat, I attempted to teach successively four more monkeys, two of which were females. I succeeded perfectly in teaching the males, but was quite unsuccessful with the females." Mr. Schwendler said there is a certain amount of intelligence required to do this work, since the arms, in their up and down movements, have to keep time with the swinging punkha. Mr. Schwendler mentioned some other instances in which the display of intelligence by monkeys had been noticed. In particular he mentioned a case in which a monkey, which had sustained a fall from trusting to a rotten branch, while swinging on a tree, had been observed afterward to examine the branches of the tree, and to break off those which it found to be rotten. Some discussion ensued as to whether the action of the monkey, in this case, was the result of intelligence, and some of the members present were of the opinion that it might have been the result simply of anger, caused by the fall. Mr. Schwendler, however, stated that he had for long made the habits of animals a study, and that he was convinced that monkeys were possessed of much intelligence; and he vouched for the authenticity of the statement made in the paper read regarding the monkeys which were taught to pull a punkha. - Nature. |