3 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as a protection, by causing the defenseless creature to be taken for an 

 arboreal tiger-cat, or some such beast of prey. 



This finishes the series of such of the American monkeys as have 

 a larger number of teeth than those of the Old World. But there is 

 another group, the Marmosets, which have the same number of teeth 

 as Eastern monkeys, but differently distributed in the jaws, a premolar 

 being substituted for a molar tooth. In other particulars they resemble 

 the rest of the American monkeys. These are very small and delicate 

 creatures, some having the body only seven inches long. The thumb 

 of the hands is not opposable, and instead of nails they have sharp, 

 compressed claws. These diminutive monkeys have long, non-prehen- 

 sile tails, and they have a silky fur, often of varied and beautiful colors. 

 Some are striped with gray and white, or are of rich brown or golden- 

 brown tints, varied by having the head or shoulders white or black, 

 while in many there are crests, frills, manes, or long ear-tufts, adding 

 greatly to their variety and beauty. These little animals are timid 

 and restless ; their motions are more like those of a squirrel than a 

 monkey. Their sharp claws enable them to run quickly along the 

 branches, but they seldom leap from bough to bough, like the larger 

 monkeys. They live on fruits and insects, but are much afraid of 

 wasps, which they are said to recognize even in a picture. This com- 

 pletes our sketch of the American monkeys, and we see that, although 

 they possess no such remarkable forms as the gorilla or the baboons, 

 yet they exhibit a wonderful diversity of external characters, consider- 

 ing that all seem equally adapted to a purely arboreal life. In the 

 howlers we have a specially developed voice-organ, which is altogether 

 peculiar ; in the spider-monkeys we find the adaptation to active motion 

 among the topmost branches of the forest-trees carried to an extreme 

 point of development ; while the singular nocturnal monkeys, the active 

 squirrel-monkeys, and the exquisite little marmosets, show how distinct 

 are the forms under which the same general type may be exhibited, 

 and in how many varied ways existence may be sustained under almost 

 identical conditions. 



Lemurs. In the general term, monkeys, considered as equivalent 

 to the order Primates, or the Quadrumana of naturalists, we have to 

 include another sub-type, that of the lemurs. These animals are of a 

 lower grade than the true monkeys, from which they differ in so 

 many points of structure that they are considered to form a distinct 

 sub-order, or, by some naturalists, even a separate order. They have 

 usually a much larger head and more pointed muzzle than monkeys ; 

 they vary considerably in the number, form, and arrangement of the 

 teeth ; their thumbs are always well developed, but their fingers vary 

 much in size and length ; their tails are usually long, but several 

 species have no tail whatever, and they are clothed with a more or 

 less woolly fur, often prettily variegated with white and black. They 

 inhabit the deep forests of Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Asia, 



