One morning as I was watching the behavior of the animals in the several
cages, I noticed Tiny dressing with her teeth a wounded finger. It had
evidently been bitten by one of the other animals, in all probability
either by Jimmie or Gertie. Tiny was trimming away the loose bits of
skin very neatly and cleansing the wound. After working at this task for
a few minutes, she quickly climbed up to the shelf near the top of her
cage, and by rushing to the partition wire between the two cages, she
lured Gertie to an attempted attack on her. Gertie sprang up to the
partition, placed her hands on it, with the fingers projecting through
the meshes, and attempted to seize Tiny's fingers with her teeth. But
the latter was too quick for her, and withdrawing her hands, like a
flash seized in her teeth the middle finger of Gertie's left hand. She
then bit it severely and with all her might, at the same time pulling
and twisting violently, often placing the entire weight of her body on
the finger. Her sharp teeth cut to the bone, and it was impossible for
the larger and stronger monkey to tear away. For several seconds this
continued, then Gertie succeeded in escaping, whereupon she at once
retreated to the opposite end of her shelf and proceeded to attend to
her injured finger. She cried, wrung her hands, and from time to time
placed the finger in her mouth as though in an effort to relieve the
pain. By this time Jimmie's attention had been attracted by the
disturbance and he rushed up to the shelf, and facing Gertie, watched
her intently for a few seconds. The look of puzzled concern on his face
was most amusing. Apparently he felt dimly that something in which he
should have intelligent interest was going on, but was unable wholly to
understand the situation. After watching Gertie for a time and trying to
discover what she was doing, which was rendered difficult by her
tendency to turn away from him, in order to shield her injured finger,
he rushed over to the wire partition and made strenuous efforts to seize
Tiny with his hands and teeth. But although she continued close to the
partition and often crowded against it with face and hands flattened on
the wires, he was not able to get hold of her, and after a few vain
attempts he returned to his mate, and again with evident solicitousness
and the most troubled expression, watched her wringing her hands and
chewing or sucking at her injured finger. Shortly he again returned to
the partition and renewed his attempts to seize the young monkey. Thus
he went back and forth from one place of interest to the other several
times, but being unable to achieve anything at either point, he finally
gave up and returned to his breakfast on the floor of the cage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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