THE BARBARY APE 3 



bonnet monkey the tail is about twenty inches 

 long, or equal to the combined length of the head 

 and body ; in the equally well-known rhesus it 

 does not exceed half this measurement, and in 

 the East Indian maimon the pig-like tail is only 

 one-third as long as the head and body together. 

 Continuing this investigation, the brown macaque 

 is found to possess a mere two-inch stump, thus 

 bringing us to the Barbary ape, which is practi- 

 cally tailless. It is therefore evident that but 

 little importance can be attached to the length of 

 the caudal appendage in classifying monkeys, 

 since all the macaques, in spite of the varying 

 length of the tail, are very closely allied, as is 

 seen not only from their other external characters 

 but also from their internal structure. 



The history of the Barbary ape stretches far 

 back into antiquity. The date of its discovery 

 by Europeans will probably never be known : but 

 Aristotle (B.C. 384-322) describes the irtfy*os in 

 his great work on the history of animals (^P 1 

 foW to-To/Ha), remarking that it is a hairy-coated 

 animal and that it "passes more of its time as a 

 quadruped than a biped " in obvious allusion to 

 its baboon-like habit of going about on all fours. 

 Galen (130-200 A.D.), honourably known as the 

 industrious author of at least eighty- three treatises, 

 on medicine and allied subjects, has left an account 

 of the anatomy of this monkey : for the student will 



