120 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



The magot is perhaps brought oftener to Europe than any other monkey ; its 

 native climate being such as to permit of its existing with tolerable comfort in more 

 northerly regions. 



EXTINCT MACAQUES 



Under the heading of the magot, incidental reference has been made to the 

 occurrence of fossil species of macaques, but as this is a subject of considerable 

 interest in regard to the present geographical distribution of these monkeys, we 

 must say a few words more. Asia being the headquarters of the group, it would 

 only be naturally expected that we should find these monkeys represented in a 

 fossil state on that continent. As a matter of fact, with the exception of India, we 

 know comparatively little of the geology of Asia. In India, however, fossil remains 

 of macaques are found in the caverns of Madras, and in certain deposits of com- 

 paratively late age in the Punjab which belong to that epoch of geological history 

 known as the Pliocene. 



In Europe fossil macaques occur in fresh-water deposits belonging to the same 

 Pliocene period, both in the south of France, in Switzerland, and also in the north 

 of Italy, in the valley of the Arno. The occurrence of these extinct monkeys need 

 not imply any very great change of climate in those regions. The case is, however, 

 very different with the single fragment of the jaw of a macaque which has been 

 found fossil in our own country, near the village of Grays, in Essex, in strata 

 which belong to the latest or Pleistocene epoch of geological history. This monkey 

 must have lived in England during the time when man had already made his 

 appearance; and there is no reasonable doubt that the climate must then have 

 been considerably milder than it is at the present day, since it is impossible to 

 imagine that monkeys could survive our English winters, even if they could 

 find a living in our woods during the summer. We have already mentioned that 

 these extinct European macaques may be those from which the magot has taken 

 origin. 



In addition to these extinct macaques, there occur in the Pliocene rocks of 

 Attica and the south of France other monkeys which appear to indicate a transition 

 from the macaques to the langurs. These monkeys, which are respectively known 

 as the mesopitheque and the dolichopitheque, have indeed short and stout limbs 

 like those of -the macaques, but skulls resembling those of the langur. Unfor- 

 tunately we shall never know the structure of their soft parts, so that their exact 

 relationships cannot be determined. 



THE BLACK APE 

 Genus Cynopithecus 



The Island of Celebes is remarkable for possessing several altogether peculiar 

 types of Mammals, among which is the so-called black ape {Cynopithecus niger), 

 the sole representative of a genus in some repects connecting the preceding group 



