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SIR WILLIAM JARDINE ON MONKEYS.* 



WE have hitherto known Sir William Jardine chiefly as a writer on 

 birds. Here he comes before us in a different department of the ani- 

 mated creation, of no less interest both to the naturalist and the general 

 reader. What we regret the most, however, both in the present and 

 the preceding volumes of this publication is, that Sir William is, from 

 the nature of his subject, restricted wholly to compilation, whereas had 

 he chosen some other departments he could have given us good original 

 observations, such as those with which he has enriched his highly 

 valuable edition of Wilson's American Ornithology.^ The compilation 

 is, notwithstanding, judiciously executed, the drier scientific details 

 being relieved at intervals with interesting anecdotes and traits of cha- 

 racter. But the selection of the subject has evidently been made not 

 so much for the display of the author's materials as on account of the 

 coloured figures^ which in general do great credit to Mr. Lizars, par- 

 ticularly in the instances of drawings made from nature ; for the copies 

 from F. Cuvier and Audebert retain so much of their Frenchified air 

 as to be easily recognisable. The colouring is in most of the figures too 

 bright and showy for nature ; as an instance of which we may refer to 

 plate 20, where Aides paniscus, whose colour is jet black, is coloured 

 blueish grey ; while the tip of the tail, whose colour is also black, with 

 a thick callous skin like the heel of a negro, is coloured light pink, 

 giving it the look of being thin and tender. 



The memoir of Buffon is well written, but greatly too short, and its 

 shortness may probably account for the omission of one of the most 

 instructive passages in the life of the great French naturalist. For the 

 benefit of our younger as well as of our older readers, who may riot 

 have met with it, we shall here insert the omitted passage as given by 

 Buffon himself to the Chevalier Aude. 



" I was," he says, " a great lover of my bed in my youth. My poor 

 Joseph " (a servant who lived with him more than sixty years) "assisted 

 greatly to conquer that propensity. I promised him a crown every time 

 he roused me at six. The next morning he did not fail to do his duty, 

 but I repulsed him ; he came the morning after, and I threatened to 

 turn him out of the room. ' Thou hast .gained nothing, Joseph, and I 



* The Naturalist's Library. Mammalia. Vol I. Monkeys. By Sir William 

 Jardine, Bart, &c. &c. Coloured plates. 



