120 THE GENERAL ANATOMY OF THE ANTHROPOIDEA [SECT. A 



III. ANTHROPOIDEA. 



As is well known, this Sub-order includes a large variety of 

 forms, differing in respect of geographical situation, habits, external 

 form, and last, but by no means least, of intellectual development 

 and temperament. In the chapter dealing with classification, the 

 main divisions, viz. the New World apes (Platyrrhinae) and the 

 Old World group (Catarrhinae) including Man himself, have been 

 indicated already. In the present place, a selection has to be 

 made, and only examples of the Catarrhinae are described in 

 detail. Among the Catarrhinae, representatives of the Cercopithe- 

 cidae and Simiidae will now be considered. 



(i) Gercopithecidae. 



The Family Cercopithecidae itself consists of an assemblage 

 of many and diverse animals. We may consider as typical the 

 members of the genus Cercopithecus from which the Family has 

 received its designation. The very name (Cercopithecus) is not 

 without interest. Since it signifies an ape with a tail, we may 

 infer that apes lacking or apparently lacking that distinctive 

 appendage were known already to those who coined the name. 

 Perhaps they need not have travelled far to see such apes, for 

 those found in Barbary and at Gibraltar are to all outward 

 appearance tailless 1 . Modern systematists include these apes in 

 the genus Macacus. The Macaques are nearly related to the 

 Cynocephalous apes, one point of resemblance being that of 

 habitat in the sense that they are found almost as frequently in 

 rocky scrub-covered districts as in the forest-covered areas 2 . 



The true Cercopithecus is however a typical arboreal form. 

 Rivalling the Lemurs in activity and agility, it resembles them 

 further in the highly specialized state of the visual organs, and 

 indeed surpasses them in the extent to which vision has become 

 binocular through the more complete overlap of the visual fields. 



1 An early memoir on the comparison of Man and Apes is that published in 1572 

 by Coiter. Analogia ossium humanorum simiaeet verae et caudatae quae Cynocephali 

 similii est, atque vutyis. Notice that a distinction between "true" and "tailed" 

 apes is recognized. 



2 Cf. statements quoted in regard to Lemur catta amongst the Lemuroidea. 



