THE MACAQUES 117 



continent by human agency, does not appear to be clearly made out. The wide 

 separation of this macaque from its Asiatic congeners suggests that it is the direct 

 descendant from those extinct species which are found in the later geological 

 deposits of various parts of Europe, at a date when we know that the genus was 

 already in existence in India. 



That the magot is the Pithecus of the ancients there is not a doubt, as the 

 description given by Aristotle is enough to identify it. This species was indeed, in 

 all probability, the only tailless member of the order with which the ancients were 

 acquainted. It was, moreover, the animal from which the ancient Greeks obtained 

 such knowledge as they possessed of human anatomy ; and an account of its 

 anatomy, given by Galen, has been handed down to our own times. The name 

 Magot is of French origin, and was applied by Buffon. 



This monkey is as large as a good-sized dog ; and the upper parts of its body, 

 and the outer sides of the limbs, are of a light yellowish brown, becoming somewhat 

 deeper on the head, and also along a line bordering the cheeks. The under parts 

 are of a dull yellowish white, while the naked portions of the face, hands, and feet, 

 as well as the callosities on the buttocks, are flesh colored. The rudiment of the 

 tail consists merely of a little fold of skin, having no sort of connection with the end 

 of the backbone. 



One of the best early original accounts of the magot is given by the French natu- 

 ralist Rene-I/uiche Desfontaines, who resided for some time in Algeria, during the 

 closing decades of the last century. This writer observes that the magots ' ' live in 

 troops in the forests of the Atlas Mountains nearest to the seashore, and are so 

 common at Stora that the surrounding trees are sometimes covered with them. 

 They live upon the cones of the pine, sweet chestnuts, and the figs, melons, 

 pistachio nuts, and vegetables which they steal from the gardens of the Arabs, in 

 spite of all the pains taken to exclude these mischievous animals. Whilst in the 

 act of committing these thefts, two or three detach themselves from the general 

 body, and keep watch from the tops of the surrounding trees or rocks ; and as soon as 

 these sentinels perceive the approach of danger, they give warning to their com- 

 panions, who presently scamper off with whatever they have been able to lay their 

 hands on. ' ' 



A military officer, formerly stationed at Gibraltar, writing in 1880, 

 ,, . . has given the following excellent account in the Field newspaper of the 

 the Rock" ma gots at that place. After stating that Gibraltar is the only Euro- 

 pean locality where monkeys occur, the author observes, that young 

 magots ' ' may frequently be seen in summer in the Moors' part of the market place, 

 brought over from Barbary ; and, doubtless, the ancestors of the existing colony 

 were similarly imported. The census frequently taken by the sergeant in charge of 

 the signaling department gives their present number as twenty-five. . . . These 

 apes were formerly very numerous on the rock, and there were several gangs of 

 them, but they were so predaceous in their habits, coming down to the gardens in 

 the upper part of the town, and stealing fruit, especially figs, that they were killed 

 by trap or poison, so as nearly to bring about their extinction. In November 1856, 

 a garrison order was published for the guidance of the signal-master," which for- 



