348 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book VIII. 



He says that the species which have tails become quite me- 

 lancholy when the moon is on the wane, and that they leap 

 for joy at the time of the new moon, and adore it. Other 

 quadrupeds also are terrified at the eclipses of the heavenly 

 hodies. All the species of apes manifest remarkable affection 

 for their offspring. Females, which have been domesticated, 

 and have had young ones, carry them about and shew them to 

 all comers, shew great delight when they are caressed, and ap- 

 pear to understand the kindness thus shewn them. Hence it 

 is, that they very often stifle their young with their embraces. 

 The dog's-headed ape 29 is of a much fiercer nature, as is the 

 case with the satyr. The callitriche 30 has almost a totally 

 different aspect ; it has a beard on the face, and a tail, which 

 in the first part of it is very bushy. It is said that this ani- 

 mal cannot live except in the climate of ^Ethiopia, which is 

 its native place. 



CHAP. 81. (55.) THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HARES. 



There are also numerous species of hares. Those in the 

 Alps are white, 31 and it is believed that, during the winter, 

 they live upon snow for food ; at all events, every year, as the 

 snow melts, they acquire a reddish colour ; it is, moreover, an 

 animal which is capable of existing in the most severe climates. 

 There is also a species of hare, in Spain, which is called the 



but the meaning seems to be, that the pieces were made of wax, and that 

 the animals had learned to distinguish them from each other, and move 

 them in the appropriate manner ; how far this is to he credited, it is not 

 easy to decide, but it would certainly require very strong and direct evi- 

 dence. We are told that the Emperor Charles V. had a monkey that 

 played at chess with him. B. 



s " 9 In the original, termed " cynocephali," " dog's-headed; " an appella- 

 tion given to them, according to Cuvier, from their muzzle projecting like 

 that of a dog; we have an account of this species in Aristotle, Hist. Anim. 

 B. ii. c. 13. B. Probably the baboon. See B. vi. c. 35, and B. vii. 

 c. 2. The satyr is, perhaps, the uran-utang. See B. v. c. 8, and B. vii. c. 2. 



30 Or " fine-haired monkey;" supposed to be the Silenus of Linnseus; it 

 is described by Buffon, under the name of Callitrix. B. It seems to be 

 also called the " Simia hamadryas." 



31 Hardouin gives references to the authors who have observed this 

 change in the colour of the hare, apparently depending upon the peculiar 

 locality, and its consequent exposure to a low temperature. Cuvier considers 

 it as characteristic of a peculiar species, the Lepus variabilis, " which being 

 peculiar to the highest mountains, and the regions of the north, is white in 

 winter." B. 



