Monkey house

“ As she languidly sauntered through the former monkey house at the gardens, playfully poking the animals with her parasol, one seized it so vigorously that she was drawn close to the den; in the twinkling of an eye, a dozen little paws were protruded, off went bonnet, curls and all, leaving a deplorable gray head, whilst others seized her reticule and her dress, pulling it in a very unpleasant manner. ”

“ The Monkey House is always a favoured resort with those who visit the Zoological Gardens, and, in spite of its somewhat close atmosphere and very disagreeable odour, one of the most attractive spots in the institution. As the number of species is very considerable, it will be impossible to condense the needful information into the limits of a single paper. ”

“ In the private room behind the monkey-house at the Zoo there are always a number of the rare and delicate monkeys from the New World, which cannot stand the draughts of the outer {24}house, like the Capuchins and spider monkeys. ”

“ Beyond the lake and water-fowl pond stands the monkey house, a large white building of Moorish design, 800 square yards in area, the boast of the Gardens and the finest in Europe. There is a central [Pg 205] large cage (90 by 18 feet) , replete with amusements, such as the village pump and well, the great wheel, aerial flight, rocking-horse, and automatic running donkeys, that never fail to please the animals and cause endless fun to the spectators. The side cages usually contain specimens of the larger baboons and the more delicate monkeys and lemurs. The house is lofty and well lighted. ”

“ A monkey's talents, like our own, are less infallible, but more versatile, and at the possessor's discretion can be applied and perverted to all possible purposes. Hence also that peculiar interest which the pranks of our mischievous relatives excite even in spectators not apt to appreciate the comic features of the spectacle. In the monkey-house of the Philadelphia Zoo I have seen saturnine burghers stand motionless for hours together, and contemplative children rapt in reveries that had little to do with the hope of witnessing a beast-fight. ”

“ In front of a handsome structure of coloured glazed bricks and free-stone are commodious iron-girt enclosures, which communicate with the dens inside and allow the animals, when the weather and season permit, to come out into the fresh air and sunshine. The monkey house is constructed on the best principles for securing efficient ventilation, whilst at the same time maintaining the high temperature that is so necessary to its tropical inhabitants. ”

“ Two of these are by this time sufficiently acclimatized to be placed in a separate cage in the large room of the Monkey House, where they live in great contentment with another little tropical rarity, the Pinche monkey from Guiana. Except on very hot days, they prefer to spend their time curled up in a nest of hay, made in a small box at the top of the cage. When the keeper calls them, there is an answering cry from the inmate, and in a few seconds the sounds in the box are like those from a nest of active little twittering birds. ”

“ Week after week, month after month, year after year, crowds gather about the monkey play-ground,—rich and poor, old and young, grave and gay. The middle-aged college professor, wending his way to the cool groves, where he may sit to read or think, fanned by soft sea breezes, and refreshed by odors of fresh foliage and sweet wild flowers,—halts here, and then goes smiling on his way to wonder “whether monkeys are not, perhaps, his cousins after all.” ”

“ We are now not far from the monkey house, where there are great cages the height of a room, with bars filled in by wire to prevent the monkeys from getting their little hands through to snatch, for if ever any saying was justified it is that one, 'as mischievous as a monkey' ”

“ The restaurant was completed for the opening of the Garden in 1875. The great hall, with its ante-rooms, was originally destined for a scientific and artistic museum; but the people, as of old, hungered more for pleasure than for science, so that the whole of the scientific collection had to be removed to the lumber-room above, and a theatre and stage took its place.
According to the opinion of Carl Hagenbeck, the monkey house at Münster is the best erection of its kind in the world. The monkeys can be outside or inside as they please all the year round. ”

“ This house stood on the other side of a common area, barely fifteen feet wide, and the railing upon which the offering lay was directly opposite the one where the little beastie crouched, but some ten feet below.
The monkey took in the situation with twinkling eyes. Then, after a brief chattered soliloquy, he humped up his back and drew himself together ready for a spring. ”

“ But now her grief was turned to gladness, for lo, and behold, there was the baby asleep in the basket on the veranda, while the baboon sat on a pile of bananas giving a strange monkey call to other monkeys.
Scarcely had we taken the baby into the house and shut the glass doors of the veranda, [55] when we heard monkeys hooting and calling from all directions, leaping from tree to tree and falling with a great thud on our roof. In ten minutes the veranda became a regular parliament of monkeys chattering over their dinners. ”

“ There is only one monkey which we can thoroughly recommend as an indoor pet, the beautiful and intelligent little Capuchin. The marmosets, even more beautiful and equally pleasing, are too delicate for our climate, and die of colds and coughs after the first fogs of winter. But the lively little Capuchins may be kept for years in an English house; and no monkey approaches their good-temper and pretty winning ways. They all have good round heads, with black fur on the top and light-brown on the cheeks. ”

“ When we talk of the house dog and cat, the horse and cow, it must be remembered [260] that each of these is a single species of animal. But when we talk of the monkey we have to do with a whole family of animals, of a great many different species.
Thus there are New World monkeys and Old World monkeys which differ so that we can always tell them apart. One curious thing about the New World monkeys is that they all live in trees and have long tails, which they can use in such a way that they seem to have five legs. ”

“ The idea that the creature in the barn was a species of monkey he at once decided, of course, to be absurd. A monkey might have stolen the missing coat and dinner, have thrown the hay down in order to cover its retreat, and have uttered that piercing shriek on being hurt, but it was hardly likely to be able either to ride a bicycle or use a pistol. ”

“ Brand's purchases, I fancy, grew more frequent, and, in any case, began to attract the neighbours' notice; whilst his house, big as it was for him—he had never married—must soon have become overcrowded, and the weaker monkeys forced towards the window. Whatever the cause, rumour got to work. Crowds of small boys, I was told, stood around the house in hopes of something happening. They came to refer to my poor friend in the open street as "Monkey" Brand. He could not leave his house without some rapscallion, in feigned panic, announcing that one of the monkeys had escaped. ”

“ He entered the neglected yard (now wilder than ever, with its growth of hog-weed and burdock) , stationed himself on the doorstep of the main entrance, and, opening his show-box, began to play. Each individual of the automatic community forthwith set to work, according to his or her proper vocation: the monkey, taking off his Highland bonnet, bowed and scraped to the by-standers most obsequiously, with ever an observant eye to pick up a stray cent ”

“ In the Panjâb an appeal to the monkey overcomes the demon of the whirlwind. There is a Bombay story that in the village of Makargâon, whenever there is a marriage in a house, the owner puts outside the wedding booth a turban, a waist-cloth, rice, fruits, turmeric, and betel-nuts for the village monkeys. The monkeys assemble and sit round their Patel, or chief. ”

“ In the garden wall, at left, is a wide door leading to a city street. In the rear wall is a square, window-like opening through which can be seen the Horse’s standing-stall. The Monkey’s house is in the lower right-hand corner of the garden. Directly across from it is the kennel of the Dog. The Rabbit’s hutch is placed against the rear wall, close to the square opening. The front of the hutch is screened with wire netting.
The garden is covered by a lawn. Flowers grow against its walls, as well as in the corners made by the meeting of wall and building. ”

“ The Japanese ape occupies an outside cage at the opposite end of the house to that inhabited by the Tcheli monkey, which it much resembles.
In the large cages in the centre of the Monkey 260House the animals are mainly grouped geographically. African monkeys, such as the velvet, malbrook, grivet, and green monkey, are in one compartment, Capuchins and other South American monkeys in a second, Indian monkeys in a third. One of the most friendly and amusing is a little “bonnet-monkey,” not much bigger than a rat. ”

“ The Calvinists illustrate their belief by a single illuminating word, Cat-hold, and the Arminians by another, Monkey-hold. Could you find better illustrations? The cat takes up the kitten and carries it in its mouth; the kitten is passive, the cat does everything. But the little monkey holds on to its mother, and clings with might and main. Those who have watched the "cat-hold" in the house, and the "monkey-hold" out in the jungle, can appreciate the accuracy of these two illustrations. ”

“ In such a forest was the old dame’s hut, and up such a bean-stalk Jack climbed, to fight a giant and a castle high above. Why not? What may not be up there? You look up into the green cloud, and long for a moment to be a monkey. There may be monkeys up there over your head,—burly red Howler, or tiny peevish Sapajou, peering down at you, but you cannot peer up at them. The monkeys, and the parrots, and the humming-birds, and the flowers, and all the beauty, are upstairs—up above the green cloud. ”

“ A monkey in captivity is happier in a cage with a number of other monkeys. "The more the merrier" is the rule in monkey land. Nearly every kind of small ape lives in a monkey village in the trees, when he is at home. There is a wise old male for a chief. He and the older males keep trespassers away from a chosen feeding place, and he leads them to a new home when they move. Early in the morning and late in the evening, seems to be play-time in a monkey town. ”

“ His winter residence was a comfortable recess beside the kitchen-fire, in a situation which commanded the view of a large hall, with all the congregating of animal life both dumb and vocal which used to throng that route, or meet beneath his quick and piercing eye. I mention this, because this situation afforded free scope for the exercise of that peculiar faculty or tendency which was the only thing that has ever struck me as peculiarly interesting in monkey character. ”

“ It was most amusing to walk along the quay, and look at all the live creatures that were there exposed for sale. Such a chattering of monkeys of all shapes and sizes, such a twittering and singing from every imaginable species of small birds, such a screaming and chattering from the parrots and macaws, and such fun in peeping into the cages of white mice and ferrets. We often wished very much to buy a monkey; but Mamma did not fancy it, and said they were uncertain ill-tempered beasts, and that we should be constantly bitten if we had one. ”

“ Indeed, the forest was full of the long-tailed and nimble-fingered monkeys, all perched in cocoanut or other trees, ready to resent the slightest movement on the part of their human enemies.
“I know a good trick,” spoke Bob.
“What is it, Chunky?” asked Jerry.
“Take a big looking-glass and put it on a tree. The monkeys will be attracted by the shine of it; [138] they will all go down to see what it is and when they see a strange monkey in the glass they will fight. ”

“ Notwithstanding the thorny stem, which even man cannot scale without a contrivance; notwithstanding the apparently inaccessible clusters—inaccessible from their great height—there is a species of monkey that manages now and then to get a meal of them. How do these monkeys manage it? Not by climbing the stem, for the thorns are too sharp even for them. How then? Do the nuts fall to the ground and allow the monkeys to gather them? No. This is not the case. How then? We shall see!
Guapo and Leon had returned to the camp, taking with them the pupunha fruit and the firewood. ”

“ The Government House is out of the city, surrounded partly by the natural forest, which was alive with monkeys, that were perched in the trees, and leaping from branch to branch. One species of them had a very wild and plaintive cry, almost like that of a human creature in distress. It is said to be the only animal whose notes range through the whole scale. It begins low, and rises rapidly, till it reaches a pitch at which it sounds like a far-off wail of sorrow. ”

“ Crowds throng the narrow, dusty streets; the women rather gracefully attired, with a profusion of silver ornaments, ear-rings, nose-rings, bracelets and bangles; the men nude or with a scant loin cloth. The houses are built of clay, sun baked, some of brick, stuccoed, ancient as time in appearance, unfit for habitation, but are grouped among the shops and temples in close proximity. The monkey temple is especially interesting, surrounded by well wooded grounds where the monkeys frisk and frolic all day long and are fed by an admiring crowd, who regard them as sacred animals. ”

“ There were no men there, only monkeys, but they were the very cleverest monkeys that ever lived, and were ruled over by a nang me prah, that is, a queen, just as men are ruled. This queen of the monkeys fell in love with the Chinaman and married him, so that he became king of Monkey Land. They built a palace for him on the top of the highest tree in the jungle. Every seventh day they brought him food. Some brought plantains, some mangoes, some rice, and some fish fresh caught in the river. ”