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CHAPTER XLVII. 



THE .SIMIJ5 OF THE NEW WORLD. 



Wide Difference between the Monkeys of botli Hemispheres — The Prehensile 

 Tail — The Wourali Poison— Mildness of the American Monkeys— The Stentor 

 Monkey — The Spider Monkeys— The Sajous — The Fox-tailed Monkeys — The 

 Saimiris — Friendships between various kinds of Monkeys — Nocturnal Monkeys 

 — Squirrel Monkeys — Their Lively Intelligence. 



11HE monkeys of the New World differ still more widely from 

 - those of the Old than the copper-coloured Indian from the 

 woolly negro. One sees at once on comparing them that whole 

 oceans roll between them, that they have not migrated from one 

 hemisphere to another, but belong to two different phases of 

 creation. While the nasal partition of the Old World simise is 

 narrow as in man, it is broad without exception in all the American 

 monkeys, so that the nostrils are widely separated and open 

 sideways. The dental apparatus is also different, for while the 

 monkeys of our hemisphere have thirty-two teeth, those of 

 the western world generally possess thirty-six. 



The tailless monkeys or apes, and the short-tailed baboons, 

 with a dog-like projecting snout and formidable fangs, are 

 peculiar to our hemisphere, and it is only here that we find 

 almost voiceless simiiB, while the American quadrumana are all 

 of them tailed, short-snouted, and generally endowed with sten- 

 torian powers. Finally, it would be as useless to look among 

 the western monkeys for cheek-pouches and sessile callosities, 

 as among those of the Old World for prehensile tails. 



In the boundless forests of tropical South America, the 

 monkeys form by far the greater part of the mammalian in- 

 habitants, for each species, though often confined within nar- 

 row limits, generally consists of a large number of individuals. 

 The various arboreal fruits which the savage population of 



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