526 THE SLMl^ OF THE OLD WORLD 



cephalopterus), is generally busily engaged in the search fur 

 berries and buds. They are seldom to be seen on the ground. 

 and then only when they have descended to recover seeds or 

 fruit that have fallen at the foot of their favourite trees. In 

 their alarm, when disturbed, their leaps are prodigious, but 

 generally speaking their progress is made not so much by leap-r 

 ing as by swinging from branch to branch, using their powerful 

 arms alternately, and when baffled by distance, flinging them- 

 selves obliquely so as to catch the lower bough of an opposite tree; 

 the momentum acquired by their descent being sufficient to 

 cause a rebound, that carries them again upwards till they can 

 grasp a higher branch, and thus continue their headlong flight. 

 In these perilous achievements wonder is excited less by the 

 surpassing agility of these little creatures, frequently encumbered 

 as they are by their young, which cling to them in their career, 

 than by the quickness of their eye and the unerring accuracy 

 with which they seem to calculate almost the angle at which a 

 descent would enable them to cover a given distance, and the 

 recoil to elevate themselves again to a higher altitude." 



The African Colobi greatly resemble the Asiatic semnopitheci, 

 but differ by the remarkable circumstance of having no thumb 

 on the hands of their anterior extremities. 



The Cercopitheci likewise possess a large tail, which is, 

 however, not more or less pendulous, as in the semnopitheci, but 

 generally carried erect over the back. They have also a longer 

 face, and their cheeks are furnished with pouches, in which, like 

 the pelican or the hamster, they are capable of stowing part of 

 their food ; an organisation which seems to denote that they are 

 inhabitants of a country where the forests are less extensive. 

 They are not devoid of intelligence, but ex- 

 tremely restless and noisy. Many that were 

 ^^ mild and amiable while young, undergo at a 

 ^''^ later period a complete change of character. 

 The only way, according to M. Isidore Geoffroy, 

 to curb the temper of one of these full-grown 

 monkeys is to extract the sharp and formidable 

 canine teeth, with which it is capable of inflicting 

 Diana Monkey.^ the most daugcrous wouuds. When disarmed, 

 it immediately alters its manners, as it now 

 feels its impotence. Several of the monkeys belonging to this 



