18 ANECDOTES OP THE MERIKANA. 



damp are injurious to his health ; and as he is fas- 

 tidiously neat, the greatest attention can hardly 

 satisfy him. Dirt and negligence annoy him be- 

 yond measure, he loses his gaiety, lays aside his 

 endearing ways, and sinks into the deepest melan- 

 choly. Remove the annoyance, and he resumes his 

 cheerfulness ; his face brightens up, and he knows 

 not how sufficiently to express his thanks. Let it 

 remain, and the Merikana gambols no longer; he 

 will even pine away and die. Equally delicate with 

 respect to eating, it is difficult to provide him with 

 proper food. Nor can he live alone ; solitude un- 

 nerves him, it seems to affect him in a degree pro- 

 portionate to the tenderness and care with which 

 he has been habitually treated. Concerning his 

 mode of life, when free to range at will, no particu- 

 lars have reached us, but it is most probably similar 

 to that of the squirrel tribe. Like them he har- 

 bours among thick clustering foliage, which affords 

 a safe retreat; yet, judging of his natural habits 

 from such as are observable in a captive state, we 

 should pronounce that the elegant Merikana has 

 no permanent abode, either for shelter or repose. 

 Every animal that in a state of nature has any fixed 

 dwelling, such as the squirrel and the beaver, the 

 rabbit and the economic mouse, is endowed with 

 the instinct of keeping it extremely clean ; but such 

 was not the case with the one of which we speak 

 while in the French menagerie, though in his person 

 fastidiously neat, and distressed at having his cage 

 neglected. 



Nor less engaging is the Squirrel Monkey (S. 

 sciurea) of the Orinoco. This animal is of a 



