His behavior plainly indicated that hunger was not his chief motive.  He was more interested in playing with things or in working with them than in eating, and the satisfaction of tearing a box to pieces seemed even greater than that of food.  It is especially noteworthy that when Skirrl attempts to dismember a box, instead of starting at random, he searches carefully for a favorable starting point, a place where a board is slightly loosened or where a slight crack or hole enables him to insert his hand or use his teeth effectively.  Many times during this experiment he was observed to examine the boxes on all sides in search of some weak point.  If no such weak point were found, he shortly left the box; but if he did find a favorable spot, he usually succeeded, before he gave up the attempt, in doing considerable damage to the box.

Following the behavior described above, Skirrl returned to the middle sized box, placed it on end under the banana, mounted, and looked upward at the bait, but as it was a few inches beyond his reach, he made no attempt to get it, but instead, after a few seconds, went to the smallest box, and finding a weak point, began to tear it to pieces.

Later he rolled what was left of the smallest box close to the other two boxes, nearly under the banana, and the remainder of his time was spent gnawing at the boxes and playing with pieces which he had succeeded in tearing from them.  During the remainder of the thirty minute interval of observation, no further attention was given the bait.

Again, on August 25, the test was tried, but this time with boxes whose edges had been bound with tin so that it was impossible for the monkey to destroy them.  He spent several minutes searching for a starting point on the middle sized box, but finding none, he dragged it under the banana, looked up, mounted the box, but, as previously, did not reach for the bait because it was beyond his reach.  He then played with the boxes for several minutes.  Finally he worked the two smaller boxes to a position directly under the banana, put the middle sized one on end, mounted it, and looked at the bait, but again abandoned the attempt without reaching.

During the thirty minutes of observation he made no definite effort to place one box upon another.  Three times he mounted one or another of the boxes when it was under the banana or nearly so, but in no case was it possible for him to reach the bait.

From the above description of this monkey’s behavior, it seems fairly certain that with sufficient opportunity, under strong hunger, he would ultimately succeed in obtaining the bait by the use of two or more boxes.  For his somewhat abortive and never long continued efforts to drag two boxes together or to place the one upon the other clearly enough indicate a tendency which would ultimately yield success.  The possibility of imitation is not excluded, for Skirrl had opportunities to see Julius and the experimenter handle the boxes.