68 



THE MANDRILL. 



FEW ANIMALS present a more grotesque mixture of fantastic embellishment and repulsive 

 ferocity than the baboon which is known under the name of MANDRILL. 



The colors of the rainbow are emblazoned on the creature's form, but always in the very 

 spots where one would least expect to see them. A bright azure glows, not in its "eyes of 

 heavenly blue," but on each side of its nose, where the snout is widely expanded, and swollen 

 into two enormous masses. The surfaces of these curious and very unprepossessing projec- 

 tions are deeply grooved, and the ridges are bedizened with the cerulean tint above mentioned, 

 lines of brilliant scarlet and deep purple alternate with the blue, and the extremity of the 

 muzzle blazes with a fiery red like Bardolph' s nose. 



THE MANDRILL. Papio maimon. 



That all things should be equally balanced, the opposite end of the body is also radiant 

 with chromatic effect, being plenteously charged with a ruddy violet, that is permitted to 

 give its full effect, by the pert, upright carriage of the tail. 



The general color of the fur is of an olive brown tint, fading into gray on the under side 

 of the limbs, and the chin is decorated with a small yellow pointed beard. The muzzle is 

 remarkable for a kind of rim or border, which is not unlike the corresponding part in a hog, 

 and is well shown in the engraving. The ears are small, devoid of fur, and of a black color 

 with a tinge of blue. 



As in the Diana, the colors of this animal are more of a character that we look for in the 

 plumage of birds, than in one of the mammals. These bright tints do not, however, belong to 

 the hair, but only are developed in the skin, fading away after death, and turning into a dingy 

 black. The same circumstance is found to take place in many other animals, the skin colors 

 being very fugitive. 



So dependent are these tints upon the life of the animal, that unless it be in perfect health 

 and strength, the bright colors dim their beauty, and form, by their brilliancy or faintness, a 

 tolerable test of the state of the creature's health. 



The curious cheek expansions are due, not to the muscles of the face, but to the very bones 

 themselves, which are heavy, protuberant, and ridged in the bone skull as in the living head. 



