Two chimpanzees in the Dublin Zoo were often to be seen washing the two
shelves of their cupboard and "wringing" the wet cloth in the approved
fashion. It was like a caricature of a washerwoman, and someone said,
"What mimics they are!" Now we do not know whether that was or was not
the case with the chimpanzees, but the majority of the experiments that
have been made do not lead us to attach to imitation so much importance
as is usually given to it by the popular interpreter. There are
instances where a monkey that had given up a puzzle in despair returned
to it when it had seen its neighbour succeed, but most of the
experiments suggested that the creature has to find out for itself. Even
with such a simple problem as drawing food near with a stick, it often
seems of little use to show the monkey how it is done. Placing a bit of
food outside his monkey's cage, Professor Holmes "poked it about with
the stick so as to give her a suggestion of how the stick might be
employed to move the food within reach, but although the act was
repeated many times Lizzie never showed the least inclination to use the
stick to her advantage." Perhaps the idea of a "tool" is beyond the
Bonnet Monkey, yet here again we must be cautious, for Professor L. T.
Hobhouse had a monkey of the same macaque genus which learned in the
course of time to use a crooked stick with great effect.