MONKEYS. 25 



tropics they become very abundant, and increase in numbers and va- 

 riety as we approach the equator, where the climate is hot, moist, and 

 equable, and where flowers, fruits, and insects are to be found through- 

 out the year. Africa has about fifty -five different kinds, Asia and its 

 islands about sixty, while America has one hundred and fourteen, or 

 almost exactly the same as Asia and Africa together. Australia and its 

 islands have no monkeys, nor has the great and luxuriant Island of New 

 Guinea, whose magnificent forests seem so well adapted for them. 

 We will now give a short account of the different kinds of monkeys 

 inhabiting each of the tropical continents. 



Africa possesses two of the great man-like apes the gorilla and 

 the chimpanzee, the former being the largest ape known, and the one 

 which, on the whole, perhaps most resembles man, though its counte- 

 nance is less human than that of the chimpanzee. Both are found in 

 West Africa, near the equator, but they also inhabit the interior 

 wherever there are great forests ; and Dr. Schweinfurth states that 

 the chimpanzee inhabits the country about the sources of the Shari 

 River, in 28 east longitude and 4 north latitude. 



The long-tailed monkeys of Africa are very numerous and varied. 

 One group has no cheek-pouches and no thumb on the hand, and many 

 of these have long, soft fur of varied colors. The most numerous 

 group are the guenons, rather small, long-tailed monkeys, very active 

 and lively, and often having their faces curiously marked with white 

 or black, or ornamented with whiskers or other tufts of hair ; and 

 they all have large cheek-pouches and good-sized thumbs. Many of 

 them are called green monkeys, from the greenish-yellow tint of their 

 fur, and most of them are well-formed, pleasing animals. They are 

 found only in tropical Africa. 



The baboons are larger, but less numerous. Thev resemble dogs 

 in the general form and the length of the face or snout, but they have 

 hands with well-developed thumbs on both the fore and hind limbs ; 

 and this, with something in the expression of the face, and their habit 

 of sitting up and using their hands in a very human fashion, at once 

 shows that they belong to the monkey-tribe. Many of them are very 

 ugly, and in their wild state they are the fiercest and most dangerous 

 of monkeys. Some have the tail very long, others of medium length, 

 while it is sometimes reduced to a mere stump, and all have large 

 cheek-pouches and bare seat-pads. They are found all over Africa, 

 from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope ; while one species, called the 

 hamadryas, extends from Abyssinia across the Red Sea into Arabia, 

 and is the only baboon found out of Africa. This species was known 

 to the ancients, and it is often represented in Egyptian sculptures, 

 while mummies of it have been found in the catacombs. The largest 

 and most remarkable of all the baboons is the mandrill of West Af- 

 rica, whose swollen and hog-like face is ornamented with stripes of 

 vivid blue and scarlet. This animal has a tail scarcely two inches 



