CHARACTEEISTICS. 2c5 



and tlic most anthropoid or man-like of the whole, are found only 

 on the west coast of Africa. The Monkeys proper of the Old 

 World have long tails, which they use, when coursing along in 

 their forest haunts, as a tight-rope-dancer does the balancing- 

 pole ; cheek-pouches, in which, as who does not know, they can 

 stow away unlimited quantities of nuts and other forest fare ; 

 and hare patches on the posterior portions of the body callosi- 

 ties, as they are termed, not elegant in appearance, and sugges- 

 tive of too great devotion to sedentary occupations. The Baboons, 

 which come next in the descending series, are the churls of the 

 Monkey tribe. They are for the most part morose, unintel- 

 ligent, ill-humoured brutes, vindictive, and ferocious to a degree. 

 They have callosities, cheek-pouches, and short stumpy tails. 

 They go on all-fours, live among rocks and mountains, and are 

 confined almost exclusively to Africa. American Monkeys have 

 neither callosities nor cheek-pouches ; they are, moreover, inva- 

 riably destitute of opposable thumbs on the fore-hands, though 

 they arc very generally compensated for this deficiency by the 

 extraordinary endowments of their well-developed tails, which 

 act as a fifth organ of prehension, and not only assist the animals 

 in their arboreal evolutions, but are also employed in procuring 

 food. The Lemurs are a peculiar race of animals, occurring only 

 in Madagascar, which, though not very Monkey-like in general 

 appearance, are associated with the Monkeys from having oppos- 

 able thumbs on all four of their extremities. They are strictly 

 arboreal in habit, and move about with noiseless sweeping mo- 

 tions only in the dead of night, whence it is that Linnasus be- 

 stowed upon them their alarming cognomen of Lemurs, or ghosts. 



But generalities are apt to deceive : let us take a nearer view 

 of the subject. 



And in the first place it is worth while to note in what a 

 strange and remarkable manner the Monkey tribe arc linked on, 

 so to speak, to the lower sections of the animal world. They are 

 united in this way to two distinct orders on the one hand to 

 the Bats, which stand next below them in the scale of creation, 

 and on the other hand to the Rodents, such as the Squirrel and 

 the Rat. 



The union between the Monkeys and the Bats is marked by 

 that curious animal the Galeopithecus, or Flying Lemur, an 

 animal about the size of a Cat, and which, although now admitted 



