24 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



with the twenty fingers of his little rival. Next to the 

 eye, the prehensile hand is, indeed, the organic master- 

 piece of the Creator. 



But stranger than the most fearfully-wonderful organ- 

 ism is the human mind, that mysterious medley of con- 

 flicting propensities, as Schopenhauer calls it ; and the 

 mental characteristics of our Darwinian relatives exhibit 

 a not less wonderful diversity. The sundry breeds of 

 our domestic dog differ considerably in talents and dis- 

 position ; but that difference almost disappears before 

 the character-contrasts of the various four-handers. The 

 above-mentioned red howler of the Orinoco Valley is 

 all but untamable, a most spiteful, morose, and repulsive 

 brute ; but his countryman the coaita or black spider- 

 monkey is more absurdly affectionate than the fondest 

 lap-dog. Solitary confinement almost breaks his heart ; 

 restored to liberty, he lavishes his embraces alike on 

 friend and foe, and, /#//& de mieux, will hug an old tom- 

 cat for hours together. Spurzheim's nomenclature has 

 no word for that peculiar propensity ; it has nothing to 

 do with amativeness, nor is it " friendship," for it can 

 dispense with reciprocation: it is rather an excess of 

 affectionate confidence in the abstract, combined with a 

 total want of resentment, for fear itself will not prevent 

 the coaita from pressing his endearments upon an ill- 

 tempered keeper. 



A very different kind of confidence is that of the 

 chacma baboon, who enters the fields of the Namaqua 



