Ch. XIX.] FOOD OF MONKEYS. 3U 



hide under logs, I should require some confirmation of 

 the story by an experienced naturalist before believing it, 

 for all my experience has led me to the opinion that 

 any animal endowed with special means of protection 

 from its enemies is always either conspicuously coloured, 

 or in other ways attracts attention, and does not seek 

 concealment. 



About four o'clock we reached the city of Granada, 

 and, passing along some wide streets and across a large 

 square, found the hotel of Mons. Mestayer, where we 

 engaged rooms for the night. The hotel, like most of 

 the houses in the city, was built, in the Spanish style, 

 around a large court-yard, in the centre of which was a 

 flower-garden. Madame Mestayer was very fond of 

 pets, and had macaws and parrots, a tame squirrel, a 

 young white-faced monkey (Cebus albifrons), and several 

 small long-haired Mexican dogs. I was interested in 

 watching the monkey examining all the loose bark and 

 curled -up leaves on a large fig- tree in search of insects. 

 In this and other individuals of this species, a great 

 variety of countenances could be distinguished, and I could 

 easily have picked my own out of all the others I have 

 seen by the expression of its face. I was told that the 

 one in the garden at Mons. Mestayer's did not touch the 

 figs on the tree, and I believe it ; the Cebus is much 

 more of an animal "than a vegetable feeder, whilst the 

 spider-monkeys (Ateles) live principally on fruits. 



Granada was entirely burnt down by Walker and his 

 filibusters in 1856, and the present city is built on the 

 ruins of that founded by Hernandez de Cordova in 1522. 

 The streets are well laid out at right angles to each 



