It is impossible to say that the behavior was not imitative of man, for Skirrl, along with all of the other monkeys, had had abundant opportunity to see carpenters working.  But this much can be said against the idea of imitation,—­no one of the other animals, not excepting the orang utan, showed any interest whatever in hammer and nails.  Occasionally they would be played with momentarily or pushed about, but Sobke, Jimmie, Gertie, Julius, although given several opportunities to exhibit any ability which they might have to drive nails, made not the least attempt to do so.  Evidently we must either conclude that Skirrl had a peculiarly strong imitative tendency in this direction, or instead, a pronounced disposition or instinct for the use of objects as tools.  It would seem fair to speak of it as an instinct for mechanical activity.

Under this same heading may be described Skirrl’s reactions to such objects as a handsaw, a padlock, and a water faucet.  The saw was given to him in order to test his ability to use it in human fashion, for if he could so expertly imitate the carpenter driving nails, it seems likely that he might also imitate the use of the saw.

As a matter of fact, he showed no tendency to use the saw as we do.  Instead, he persistently played with it in various ways, at first using it as a sort of plane to scrape with, later often rubbing the teeth over a board so that they cut fairly well, but never as effectively as in the hands of a man.  After two or three days’ practice with the saw, Skirrl hit upon a method which is, as I understand, used by man in certain countries, namely, that of placing the saw with the teeth up, holding it rigid, and then rubbing the object which is to be sawed over it.  This Skirrl succeeded in doing very skillfully, for he would sit down on the floor of the cage, grip with both feet the handle of the saw, with the teeth directed upward, then holding either end in his hands, he would repeatedly rub a stick over the teeth.  In this way, of course, he could make the saw cut fairly well.  But still more to his liking was the use of a spike instead of a stick as an object to rub over the teeth, for with this he was able to make a noise that would have satisfied even a small boy.

Further light is shed on the force of the tendency to imitate man by the saw test.  After Skirrl had been given an opportunity to show what he could do with the tool spontaneously, I demonstrated to him the approved human way of sawing.  Often he would watch my performance intently as though fascinated by the sound and motion, but when given the tool he invariably followed his own methods.  Although I repeated this test of imitation several times on three different days, the results were wholly negative.

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