PREFACE. 



The great increase in our knowledge of animals which has 

 taken place since the volume on Monkeys was published in 

 " Jardine's Naturalist's Library " some sixty years ago, cannot 

 be better illustrated than by the fact that our excellent con- 

 tributor, Dr. H. O. Forbes, has found it impossible to com- 

 press that knowledge into a single volume of the present issue. 

 There is, moreover, no Museum which contains such a com- 

 plete series of skins of the Primates, as to render a perfect 

 " monograph " of the Order possible. Dr. Forbes has en- 

 deavoured in these volumes to bring the subject up to date, 

 and has devoted some years of study to the two which now 

 appear under his name, and he has had the great advantage of 

 having seen many of the species of which these volumes treat, 

 in a state of nature. If diligent research and patient work, 

 combined with a sound anatomical knowledge and an acquain- 

 tance with many species of Monkeys in their natural habitat, 

 avail anything, then these volumes should present to the stu- 

 dent a more concise epitome of the characteristics of the Pri- 

 mates than any other essay yet offered to the public. It has 

 been found impossible to reproduce any of the plates in the old 

 " Naturalist's Library " of Jardine. They would have formed, 

 with appropriate inscriptions, a very good instalment of a series 

 of " Comic Natural History " volumes, as they were, in fact, 



