Simia Jacchus^ Lin., or Jdcchus vulgaris, Geoff. \9 



acuteness of its hearing. 



/^%. 



For a considerable time there was 

 no evident change in its habits, as it continued to be nearly as 

 wild as when I first got it, and showed none of the playful- 

 ness and vivacity which characterise most of the monkey tribe. 

 ^s long as the fruit which he had on board lasted, it would 

 eat nothing else ; but when these failed, we soon discovered a 

 most agreeable substitute, which it appeared to relish above 

 every thing. By chance we observed it devouring a large 

 cockroach which it 



had caught, run- - - ^^ «^^iiMHaft*» .,.'>. i 



ning along the deck 

 of the vessel ; and 

 from this time to 

 nearly the end of 

 the voyage, a space ,y 

 offour or five weeks, ^/ 

 it fed almost exclu- tk 

 sively on these in- ^\ 

 sects, and contri- 

 buted most effect- 

 ually to rid the 

 vessel of them. It 

 frequently eat a score of the largest kind, which are 2 or 

 2^ in. long, and a very great number of the smaller ones, 

 three or four times in the course of the day. It was quite 

 amusing to see it at its meal. When he had got hokl of 

 one of the large cockroaches, he held it in his fore paws, and 

 then invariably nipped the head off first ; he then pulled out 

 the viscera and cast them aside, and devoured the rest of the 

 body, rejecting the dry elytra and wings, and also the legs of 

 the insect, which are covered with short stiff bristles. The 

 small cockroaches he eat without such fastidious nicety. In 

 addition to these, we gave him milk, sugar, raisins, and 

 crumbs of bread. Hitherto the weather was warm, the ther- 

 mometer being never below 65° or 60° Fahr. ; but as we 

 reached a more northern latitude, and approached England, 

 the change of temperature affected the monkey very sensibly; 

 his appetite failed very considerably, and now he would not 

 even touch the cockroaches when given to him; the hair, 

 especially that on the tail, fell off; and, at the end of the 

 voyage, this organ was almost quite bare and naked. He 

 kept constantly in the kennel, rolling himself up in a piece of 

 flannel, which had been put in for warmth, except when he 

 could reach a sunny part of the deck, where he might bask in 

 the heat. There was a considerable continuance of cold north- 

 easterly winds, the thermometer as low as from 42° to 36*' 



c 2 



