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Sobke, even when very hungry, instead of going directly toward the bait, and trying to obtain it, usually did various other things as though pretending that he had no interest in food.
As contrasted with Skirrl and even with Sobke, he adapted himself to the multiple-choice apparatus very promptly, and only slight effort on the part of the observer was necessary to prepare him, by preliminary trials, for the regular experiments.
It was further found desirable to give Sobke all of his food in the apparatus. When the rewards obtained in the several trials did not satisfy his hunger, additional food was presented, on the completion of the series of experiments, in one or more of the food cups. On days marked by unwillingness or refusal to work, very little food was given.
Hammer, nails, saw, stones, sticks, locks, and various other objects received relatively little attention from Sobke unless they happened to come in his way; then they were usually pushed aside with but scant notice. Rarely he would carry something to the shelf of his cage with him, but as a rule only to lay it down and attend to something else.
For Sobke, as for Julius and Skirrl, the draw-in test was made by putting food on a shelf outside the cage, beyond the reach of the animal, and placing in the cage with the animal one or two sticks long enough to be used for drawing in the bait. Sobke was first given this test on July 24.
As the available time for the continuation of the experiment was limited, it was decided to proceed with work on problem 4 immediately upon the completion of problem 3, and on July 20, the problem of the middle door was presented to Sobke.
When on July 22 I gave Sobke an opportunity to enter the apparatus, he refused, and it was impossible to lure him in with food. Two hours later, having waited meantime for his breakfast, he entered readily and worked steadily and persistently through his third series of trials, but in no one of these trials did he choose correctly.
Work was continued thus steadily until May 28 when, because of the failure of the animal to improve, it seemed wise to increase the period of confinement as punishment to sixty seconds. In the meantime, it had sometimes been evident that Sobke was near to the solution of his problem.
The total time for the series was forty-five minutes, the total number of choices, eighty-eight. In the second series, he was aided in four of the trials. The total time required was seventy-two minutes, and the total number of choices was seventy-six. Throughout the first series, Sobke worked hard, but with evidently increasing dissatisfaction.
For the major portion of my experimental work, only three of the eleven animals were used. A growing male, P. rhesus monkey, known as Sobke; a mature male, P. irus, called Skirrl; and the young orang utan, which had been named Julius. Plates I and II present these three subjects of my experiments in characteristically interesting attitudes.
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