44 GRIVET, GREEN MONKEY, AND VERVET. 
Very little is known of the habits of this animal, but it is said to be a gentle 
creature, feeding on insects as well as on the usual vegetable food for monkeys. 
It is a native of Abyssinia, and its name “ Guereza” is its Abyssinian title. 
The beauty of its fur causes it to be much sought after by the natives of the country, 
who make its skin into coverings for the curiously shaped shields which they bear. 
The white fringe is the part th at is chiefly valued, and its appearance on a shield points 
out at once a person of distinction in its bearer. 
GRIVET. GREEN MONKEY, VERVET. 
Cercopithécus Engythtthia. Cercopithécus Sabeus. Cercopithécus Pygerythrus, 
We now arrive at a group of small monkeys, with exceedingly long names. The term 
“ Cercopithécus ” is composed from two Greek words, signifying “ tailed < ape.” 
The monkeys belonging to this genus are very abundant in their native forests, and 
the unfortunate peripatetic monkeys that parade the streets in tormenting company 
with barrel organs, or seated on the backs of dejected and pensive bears, are mostly 
members of this group. The first glance at one of these monkeys will detect a peculiar 
sheen of the fur, that bewilders the eye and conceals the precise colour. If, however, 
the hairs are examined separately, each hair will be found to be varied in colour several 
times, black and yellow being the principal colours. First the hair will be black for a 
part of its length, then yellow, then black again, and go on to the tip. As the black has 
something of a bluish tinge in it, the mixture of the yellow and blue gives an undefined 
ereenish hue, which in the central figure of the engraving is so decided, as to cause the 
name of Green Monkey to be given to the animal. 
The Cercopitheci are remarkable for the singularly large development of the cheek 
pouches, which seem to possess an ulimitable power of extension, and to accumulate a 
strange medley of articles. Supply one of these monkeys with nuts or biscuit, and 
he will contrive to put the greater part of the food into his cheek pouches, only eating 
a small portion at the time. 
I never knew but one instance when the pouches were quite full, and even then the 
monkey was a small one, and the nuts were large. The little creature was liberally 
gifted with nuts, with the special purpose of ascertaining the capabilities of the pouches, 
and after dilating its cheeks to a wonderful extent with large “cob” nuts, it was at last 
compelled to empty them into its hands. 
These pouches have been aptly compared to the stomach of a ruminant aninal, 
and are employed in much the same manner. By means of the possession of these 
natural cupboards, the monkey is enabled to make little incursions, to eat as much food 
as hunger demands, and to carry away sufficient nourishment for one or two meals more, 
without being embarrassed in its retreat by its burden. 
It is worth notice that the word “ monkey ” is derived from the name of one of this 
group, the Mona. The diminutive of Mona is Monikin, the transition from which word 
to our “monkey” is sufficiently evident. 
