MONKEYS OPENING OYSTERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1737, 16 December 1887, Page 3

MONKEYS OPENING OYSTERS.

«. So many people have expressed their surprise at hearing that I constantly saw monkeys breaking open oysters with a stone on the islands off South Burmuh, that it may be oi interest to give a short description of their method of using such a tool writes a correspondent In "Nature." Tho low-water rooks of tho islands of the Mergnl Archipelago are covered with oysterß, large and small. A monkey, probably macaens cynomulyus, prowh«, about the shore when tho tide la low, opening the rock oysters with a atone by striking the base cf the uppor valves until it dislocates and breaks up. Uo then extracts the oyster with his finger and thumb, occasionally putting hia moulh -tralght to the broken shell. On disturbing them I generally found that they had selected a Btono moro apparently for convenience ln handling than for its valuo as a hammer ; and It was smaller m proportion to what a human being would have selected for a proportionate amount of work. In short, It was usually a stono they could get thoir fingors round. As tho rocks crop up through tho low water mud, the stone had to bo brought up from high water mark ; this dißtanoo varying from teu to eighty yards. This monkey had choßen the easleat way to open the rock oycter, viz., to dislocate tho valve by a blow en tho baao of tho upper one, and to break the ehell oyer the attaching muscle. The Ribbon also frequents theqe island?. But I never caw ono of them on the beach. .