i8 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Ptloto bj L. Midland, F.Z.S.] 



RHESUS MONKEYS 



[North 



the menageries is a separate species or 

 only the young of some one of the above- 

 mentioned is not very clear. But about 

 another variety there can be no doubt. It 

 has been separated from the rest since the 

 days of the Pharaohs. It does not differ in 

 habits from the other baboons, but inhabits 

 the rocky parts of the Nile Valley. It 

 appears in Egyptian mythology under the 

 name of Thoth, and is constantly seen in 

 the sculptures and hieroglyphs. 



Equally strong and far more repulsive 

 are the two baboons of West Africa the 

 DRILL and the MANDRILL. As young 

 specimens of these beasts are the only ones 

 at all easily caught, and these nearly always 



Thit photograph is particularly interesting. It -was actually taken by another die when Cutting their SCCOttd teeth when in 



monkey, -which pr esi ed the button of Mr. Mediants cimera captivity, large adult mandrills are seldom 



seen in Europe. They grow to a great 



size, and are probably the most hideous of all beasts. The frightful nose, high cheek-bones, and 

 pig-like eyes are the basis of the horrible heads of devils and goblins which Albert Diirer and 

 other German or Dutch mediaeval painters sometimes put on canvas. Add to the figure the mis- 

 placed bright colours cobalt-blue on the cheeks, which are scarred, as if by a rake, with scarlet 

 furrows, and scarlet on the but- 

 tocks and it will be admitted that 

 nature has invested this massive, 

 powerful, and ferocious baboon 

 with a repulsiveness equaling in 

 completeness the extremes of 

 grace and beauty manifested in the 

 roe-deer or the bird of paradise. 



The natives of Guinea and 

 other parts of West Africa have 

 consistent accounts that the 

 mandrills have tried to carry off 

 females and children. They live 

 in troops like the chacmas, 

 plunder the fields, and, like all 

 baboons, spend much time on 

 the ground walking on all-fours. 

 When doing this, they are quite 

 unlike any other creatures. They 

 walk slowly, with the head bent 

 downwards, like a person walking 

 on hands and knees looking for 

 a pin. With the right hand 

 (usually) they turn over every 



stick and stone, looking for insects, fittn *, A . s. Rutland & son, 

 scorpions, or snails, and these they ORANGE SNUB-NOSED MONKEY 



Seize and eat. 1 he Writer has Seen ^' s *hould be contrasted with the Proboscis Monkey 



