M N K E Y. 



they soon perished. No conclusion with regard to 

 the conduct of the animals in a state of nature can, 

 however, be drawn from tin's, at least with certainty, 

 for confinement alters the natural dispositions of 

 animals, though it is natural to suppose that the 

 attachment of the mother to her young is the last 

 affection that would be changed by this means. 



This African species makes a much nearer approach 

 to the baboons than any of the Asiatic ones do ; and 

 though there are still differences, both in appearance 

 and in manners, it might perhaps, with as much pro- 

 priety, be classed with the baboons as with the 

 monkeys. After it, the next African link, leading to 

 the more typical and ferocious baboons, is the pig- 

 tailed baboon, of which some notice will be found 

 under the title BABOON, in its place in the alphabet. 



With the present species, therefore, we close our 

 brief notice of the monkeys of the eastern continent. 

 Altogether they are a numerous, a noisy, and a mis- 

 chievous race, though the singularity of their forms, 

 their great strength in proportion to their size, and 

 their lively motions, will always render them animals 

 to which a certain degree of interest attaches. To 

 man they may be said to be of little or no use other 

 than the mere gratification of curiosity ; but, though 

 to our feelings there is something repulsive in the 

 idea of eating a monkey, from its imagined resem- 

 blance to a dwarf of the human race, it is highly 

 probable that most, if not all of them, would make 

 wholesome food ; and they are so numerous that vast 

 numbers of them could easily be procured for this 

 purpose. Those vast numbers bespeak a correspond- 

 ing extent of use in the economy of wild nature ; but 

 what that use is, is not so easily determined, the more 

 so that the economy of the forests which they inhabit 

 is but imperfectly known, and cannot be studied with 

 safety, as a tropical forest is always unhealthy in 

 proportion to its closeness, and the vigour of its 

 vegetation. 



II. MONKEYS OF AMERICA. The monkeys of 

 the western continent, which differ much more 

 from all those of the east than the Asiatic and the 

 African differ from each other. In America there 

 are neither apes nor baboons, nor any animals 

 resembling them ; but the monkeys are exceedingly 

 numerous in the extensive forests of tropical America, 

 and they are equally remarkable for their structure 

 and their manners. Some of the handed animals of 

 the east are noisy enough, and the voices of the whole 

 order are screaming and disagreeable ; but the eastern 

 ones are nothing to some of the western in this respect, 

 for the latter really make the woods dismal with their 

 bowlings, for the performance of which they have a 

 peculiar organisation, which we shall afterwards 

 notice. Many of the eastern animals are remark- 

 able for the quickness of their motions, and their 

 dexterity in springing to the branches of trees, and 

 so from branch to branch till they traverse the forest 

 faster than any ground animal can follow them, inter- 

 rupted as it is by the undergrowth below. Their 

 motions are, however, really nothing compared to 

 those of the American species, many of which resemble 

 swift birds in their motions, much more than animals 

 which have no wings. In the general characters 

 upon which animals are classified, there may be said 

 to be a strong resemblance between the handed ani- 

 mals of the two continents ; but in every case it is a 

 similarity without the least approximation to sameness. 

 The American species have the three kinds of teeth 



in like manner as those of the eastern continent, but 

 the cheek-teeth are sometimes more numerous. The 

 females have all two pectoral mamma; in both conti- 

 nents, and there is much resemblance in the general 

 economy in so far as reproduction is concerned. So 

 also all the four extremities of the Americans are 

 shaped like hands, as is the case with the eastern 

 ones ; but their hands are variously formed, and in 

 some of the species they approach to those of the 

 aie-aie, the galago, and some other tree animals of 

 the east, which, though to a certain extent they are 

 quadrumana, cannot be classed with the typical qua- 

 drumana, whether apes, baboons, or monkeys. These 

 last have the claws long and pointed, instead of being 

 flat like nails, as they are in the eastern monkeys, and 

 those of America, which approach most nearly to the 

 eastern ones in their general form. It is to the mon- 

 keys of the east, rather than to any other of the 

 divisions of the other, that the American ones have 

 the greatest resemblance. They have long tails, and 

 though they are not prehensile, or capable of laying 

 hold, in all the race, yet many of them possess that 

 species of action in so high a degree, as to combine 

 the grasping of a hand with a degree of litheness and 

 flexibility not much inferior to the proboscis of the 

 elephant. It is true that none of them are divided at 

 the extremity, or otherwise capable of laying hold, 

 except by coiling round the substance which they 

 seize ; but they do this so readily, so firmly, and in 

 so endless a number of positions, that they are truly 

 wonderful instruments, and there are perhaps not any 

 more wonderful mechanical instruments in the whole 

 animal creation. 



As is the case with the handed animals of the 

 eastern continent, those of America are conveniently 

 divided into three great groups. The first of these 

 have been styled Helopitheci, which we may translate 

 " tree apes," and, generally speaking, they have the 

 tail prehensile. The second have been termed Geopi- 

 theci, or " ground apes," which have the tail long, but 

 slightly or not at all prehensile, and they in general 

 have the legs much stouter than the group with 

 prehensile tails, but not so long in proportion. The 

 third group have been called Arclopitheci, or " bear 

 apes," because their claws are shaped something like 

 those of the bear. This last group consists of only 

 a single genus, Ouistiti, afterwards to be mentioned. 

 Popularly, however, all these groups are called mon- 

 keys in this country, and we shall bring the whole of 

 them into this article, because we shall save some 

 room, and therebj 7 be enabled to bring out their 

 characters with more clearness. The three groups 

 have been described under other names than those 

 now mentioned, which are, we believe, those given to 

 them by at least some tribes of the native inhabitants 

 of those countries in which they are found. Those 

 names are Sapajou, for the first group ; Sagouin, for 

 the second ; and Ouistiti, for the third. We shall 

 take them under these names, pointing out the several 

 genera into which the first and second groups have 

 been arranged, and also noticing the leading species 

 in each. 



1 . SAPAJOUS. It will be borne in mind that these 

 are the true apes or monkeys of America, properly 

 so called, though of course the other groups, being 

 handed animals, are also climbers. The characters 

 of these are as follow : the partition between the 

 nostrils is much thicker than that of the apes of the 

 eastern continent ; and the nostrils opening obliquely 



