272 



BABOON. 



keep chiefly to the mountainous parts, and seldom 

 visit the plains except about the time that the crops 

 are ripe, when they often come in troops to plunder 

 the plantations and gardens ; and they are so bold 

 and daring on their predatory visits, that it is not easy 

 to drive them away, except by fire arms, at the sound 

 of which they are said to be alarmed. When assailed 

 in their native rocks (for the summits of the rocks 

 rather than the trees are their places of strength), 

 they are said to have recourse to some of the means 

 of defence which the keepers of castles, before the 

 invention of artillery, were in the habit of using 

 against assailants. They throw stones with their 

 hands with very considerable aim and effect, and 

 they also roll down much larger stones than they are 

 able to throw. Along with a considerable share of 

 rather lively mischief, they are said to have more fun 

 in them than many of the other baboons, and to re- 

 semble monkeys in their disposition to play tricks. It 

 is said that when they discover a single labourer at 

 his meal in the fields, they steal gently behind him 

 and snatch away part of his provisions ; and that they 

 do not make off for their fastnesses with the stolen 

 property, but remain and tantalise the person whom 

 they have robbed. They sit down at a little distance, 

 and begin to eat what they have taken, with the 

 greatest coolness imaginable, holding it up so that 

 the party may see it. It is also said that they are the 

 most imitative of animals ; but many of the stories 

 that are told of them must, of course, be received 

 with considerable allowances. It is tolerably well 

 authenticated however, that they have not the sul- 

 len disposition of many of the other baboons ; that 



Pig. faced Baboon. 



they are much more given to tricks, and can be ren- 

 dered more docile in a state of confinement, though 

 when they have attained a considerable age, they 

 cannot, the males especially, be tampered with with 

 impunity. They'are said to be very apt to resent in- 

 juries, even at a considerable time after these have 

 been inflicted ; and as their bite is very sharp and 

 severe, and given without warning, they are thereby 

 doubly dangerous. The bite of the quadrumana, even 



when they have the canines long, as is the case with 

 the baboons, is not generally given with those teeth 

 but with the incisors : it is therefore not a tearing but a 

 cutting bite ; and when they are much irritated and bite 

 hard, they often cut off the piece which they seize as 

 completely and with as even an action as if it were 

 removed by a knife or any other cutting instrument. 



Many anecdotes are told of the imitative propen- 

 sities of the pig-headed baboon. Of these a con- 

 siderable number are no doubt exaggerated, but still 

 there must be some foundation. We shall mention 

 one as a specimen, without either doubting or vouch- 

 ing for its accuracy : a Mr. Boodle had one in a 

 state of domestication, which he treated with con- 

 siderable attention, and that the animal repaid by a 

 close imitation of every thing imitable by him which 

 he saw Mr. B. do. One day the apothecary sent a 

 box of aperient pills, of which two were a dose. Mr. 

 B. took the prescribed number in presence of the 

 baboon, and shutting the box, deposited it on the 

 mantel-piece of the room. The moment that he was 

 gone, the imitative animal seized the box, and set 

 about helping himself to a dose of the pills. 



This species is sometimes called the black baboon, 

 but the black upon the general covering is marked 

 with greenish and yellowish, and the produced hair 

 upon the sides of the face is grey ; the face and hands 

 are black. 



5. The MANDRILL (C. maimon). This is one of 

 the species which Cuvier separates into a different 

 genus from those already mentioned. The chief 

 grounds of separation are, the muzzle very long, the 

 tail very short, and the disposition more savage and 

 ferocious than that of the others, none of which are 

 very clear and satisfactory as generic characters. The 

 mandrill, however, is a very singular animal both in 

 form and in colour. The form is accurately given in 

 the plate " Baboons." The prevailing colours of the 

 adult male are, greyish-brown, inclining to olive on 

 the upper part ; there is a small beard of a lemon- 

 yellow tinge on the chin ; the cheeks are blue and 

 furrowed ; the nose red, brightening into scarlet at 

 the point ; some of the other naked parts are red ; 

 and the callosities on the buttocks, which are large 

 and conspicuous, are bright violet. This mixture of 

 bright tints, very unusual in the mammalia, give the 

 animal the appearance of being painted for show; 

 and, taken in combination with his grotesque figure 

 and ferocious expression, render him the most singu- 

 lar looking animal in the whole class. 



The mandrill is the largest as well as the most sin- 

 gular and hideous in aspect of all the baboons, and 

 he is an animal of great size and strength, his ordi- 

 nary height when full grown being about the same 

 as that of a man ; and he is very strong and muscu- 

 lar, especially in the head, the neck, and all the an- 

 terior parts of the body. The history of the species 

 is very imperfect, and it is probable that it is in many 

 particulars confounded with that of the chimpansee ; 

 the mandrill getting credit for some of the good, or 

 at all events agreeable qualities of the chimpansee, 

 and the chimpansee being in return saddled with 

 some of the mandrill's disagreeable ones. The fact 

 is not fully ascertained, but it is probable that the 

 mandrill is proportionally as much longer in coming 

 to maturity as he is larger in size than the common 

 baboon of Guinea; and as the colours and the full 

 elongation of the face appear in the mature male 

 only, it is probable that many of the doubtful species 

 enumerated by authors may be the young in different 



