MACAQUES. 51 
temper does not seem to be so irritable as that of many monkeys; and even when they 
are roused to anger, their ire is comparatively evanescent. 
On account of the white hue which marks the eyelids, the Mangabey 7S are sometimes 
termed the “ White-eyelid Monkeys.” The Sooty Mangabey is well named; for its 
general colour is nearly black, something like a half-tint chimney-sweeper. The black 
hue is only found in the adult animal, the colour of the young Mangabey being a 
fawn tint. Sometimes it goes by the name of the Negro Monkey ; and under these 
several titles suffers somewhat from the confusion that is almost inseparable from such 
uncertain nomenclature. It is rather a small animal, measuring some eighteen inches or 
so from the nose to the root of the tail, which occupies about the same space. 
Among the peculiar habits which distinguish the Mangabeys, we may especially 
notice the action of their lips, and the mode in which they carry the tail. They have a 
strange way of writhing their faces into a kind of quaint grin, in which they raise the 
lips, and exhibit the teeth almost as if they were laughing. When walking, they have a 
fashion of turning their tails over their backs, and carrying them reversed, in a line 
almost parallel with the direction of the spine. 
Few monkeys can assume more ovr? attitudes than the Mangabeys, which seem to be, 
among monkeys s, almost the analogues of the acrobats among mankind; and twist them- 
selves into such strange contortions, that they seem to be e rble to dispense with the bones 
and joints with which other animals are furnished. They seem to be quite aware of their own 
accomplishments, and soon learn that their display will bring in a supply of nuts, cakes, 
and fruit to their exchequer. So they keep a vigilant eye on the visitors, and when they 
conceive that they have drawn attention to themselves, they execute a series of agile 
gambols, in the hope of meeting the reward which sweetens labour. 
Their attention is soon excited by any object that is more than ordinarily glittering ; 
jewellery of all kinds being as magnets, to which their eyes and fingers are instinctively 
drawn. My own fingers hav e more than once been endangered by the exceeding zeal 
manifested by the animal in its attempts to secure a ring to which it had taken a sudden 
liking. The monkey held out its paw as if it wanted to shake hands, seized my 
fingers with both its hands, and did its best to remove the object of its curiosity ; fortu- 
nately, the ring fitted rather tightly, or it would probably have been lost or swallowed. 
As it was, a few scratches on my hands, and an outburst of disappointed anger on the 
part of the monkey, were the only results of the sudden attack. 
MACAQUES. 
THE various species of monkeys which are ranged under the common title of Macaques, 
are mostly well-known animals; being plentiful in their native lands, and frequently 
domesticated, both in their own and in foreign countries. They are all inhabitants of 
Asia, although the word Macaco is the name which is given to all kinds of quadrumanous 
animals on the coast of Guinea, and is almost sy nonymous W ith our own word monkey. 
One of the best typical examples of this genus is found in the BONNET MACAQUE, or 
MunGaA, as it is often called. A native of Bengal and Ceylon, it is a frequent visitor to 
our shores ; being tolerably hardy in constitution, bearing the long voyage well, and suf- 
fering less from our insular climate than many of the monkey tribe. 
For the title of Bonnet it is indebted to the peculiar arrangement of the hairs on the 
crown of the head, which radiate in such a manner that they seem to form a kind of 
cap or bonnet. The general colour of the animal is a rather bright olive-grey, fading into 
white beneath. The mien of the face is of a leathery flesh eolouse 
The distinctions between the Macaques and the Cercopitheci, are not very striking ; 
but by comparison of the two genera, sufficiently decided variations are visible. These 
are rather comparative than absolute. In the Macaques, the muzzle is slightly more 
solid than in the Guenons, the body and head are larger, and in most species the tail 
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