THE HAPALID^:. MAMMALIA. THE MARMOZETS. 



their period of activity is to a certain extent nocturnal; 

 bnt in the douroucouli, this character is carried to a 

 far greater extent, and this animal and its allies are 

 known to sleep through the day, and to roam about 

 at night in search of their food. Their eyes, like those 

 of the cats, are luminous in the dark; their voice 

 is very strong, and, according to Humboldt, resembles 

 that of the jaguar. It seerns probable, indeed, from a 

 statement made by that author in his " Aspects of 

 Nature," that the concert of fearful noises heard during 

 the night in the forests of tropical America, and usually 

 attributed to the howling monkeys alone, is due to the 

 combined efforts of many different vocalists. 



The douroucouli shelters itself in the holes of large 

 trees, and according to Humboldt, lives in pairs, and 

 not in troops, like most other monkeys. Spix, how- 

 ever, saj's that he has seen them going about in bands. 

 The tail is long, but not prehensile, and the animal 

 winds it round its body when in repose. The ears are 

 almost entirely concealed by the long hairs on the sides 

 of the head; the colour of the fur on the upper parts 

 of the body is grey; the lower parts are orange, and 

 this colour also appears on the sides of the neck. The 

 forehead exhibits three black lines, diverging back- 

 wards; and the tail is yellowish-grey, witb the tip 

 black. The length of the head and body is about ten 

 inches, and that of the tail eleven. The douroucouli 

 feeds principally on insects, and also on small birds, 

 which it easily surprises when they are asleep. 



FAMILY III. HAPALID.E. 



The Marmozets (HapalidcB), forming the third 

 family of the Quadrumana, and the second of the 

 American monkeys, are distinguished from the Cebidse, 

 to which they are in other respects very closely allied 

 by the absence of the additional molar tooth, which, in 

 the latter, occurs on each side in each jaw. Thus the 

 total number of their teeth and that of the different 

 kinds of teeth becomes the same as in man and the 

 higher Quadrumana of the Old World. The tubercles 

 of the molars are also more acute than in the Cebklse, 

 indicating that the marmozets are more addicted to an 

 animal diet, and, in fact, a great part of the nourish- 

 ment of these creatures consists of insects, eggs of birds, 

 and even small birds themselves, -when these come 

 within reach of the carnivorous little monkeys. Their 

 tails are long and well-furred, but never prehensile. 



The marmozets are all of small size, rarely exceeding 

 that of a squirrel ; their heads are small and rounded ; 

 their ears usually provided with tufts of hair; the 

 thumbs of the anterior hands are scarcely opposable, 

 but those of the hinder pair are completely so, and 

 these are furnished with flat nails whilst all the rest of 

 the fingers bear claws. In every particular of their 

 organization these monkeys show themselves to be 

 inferior to the rest of the great group of Simise, and to 

 approach more closely to the ordinary mammals, whilst 

 the almost complete absence of convolutions on the 

 surface of the brain would seem to indicate a degree 

 of intelligence far below that, not only of the other 

 Quadrumana, but even of the majority of the placental 

 Mammalia. In this respect, indeed, the marmozets 

 VOL. I. 



appear to approach the squirrels, with which they also 

 have some other analogies ; they are incapable of the 

 education which most of the other Simiae and some of 

 the Cebidae in particular, may be brought to receive, 

 and their instinctive faculties are very highly developed. 

 The extent of their intelligence will be seen from the 

 particulars recorded by Audouin of the behaviour of 

 two marmozets observed by him. In a picture they 

 could recognize their own likeness, and those of flies, 

 locusts, and beetles, the latter of which they endea- 

 voured to seize with great avidity. The picture of a 

 cat, on the other hand, and that of a wasp, caused them 

 to shrink with terror, and when occupied in catching 

 the flies which entered their cage, which they did with 

 incredible dexterity, the appearance of a wasp attracted 

 by a piece of sugar fixed in the bars, drove them at 

 once to take refuge at the bottom of their cage. 

 Astonished at this instinctive dread of an insect which 

 they could never have seen before, Audouin took a 

 wasp and brought it near the two marmozets, when 

 they immediately hid their heads between their fore 

 hands and closed their eyes. But as soon as he substi- 

 tuted for the wasp, a grasshopper, a beetle, or some 

 other harmless insect, they darted upon it greedily and 

 devoured it with the greatest gusto. Sugar and sweet 

 fruits also constituted favourite articles of food with 

 them, and they possessed the art of sucking eggs in 

 great perfection. They would not eat flesh ; but when a 

 small living bird was given to them, they would seize 

 upon and kill it, then open its skull and devour the 

 brain, at the same time licking up any blood that might 

 flow: they would also sometimes eat the bill, the 

 tendons of the feet, and some other parts, but always 

 avoided the flesh. Mr. A. K. Wallace during his 

 voyage up the Amazon had an opportunity of observing 

 many similar habits in specimens of several species of 

 this family, which he kept in confinement. 



M. Audouin states that his marmozets recognized 

 those who had the care of them, but this is opposed to 

 the observations of most other naturalists, and must 

 have been due to peculiar conditions in the individuals 

 observed by the great French entomologist. 



In their native regions, the luxuriant forests of 

 South America, these elegant little monkeys live 

 amongst the trees in small troops, displaying, amongst 

 the branches, an agility almost as great as that of the 

 beautiful little inhabitant of our own woods the 

 squirrel. Their activity, however, is nocturnal. They 

 produce as many as three young ones at a birth, which 

 is an additional indication of their approach to the 

 lower Mammalia; for the rest of the Quadrumana, and 

 even the Cheiroptera, usually produce only a single 

 young one ; and, as if to show this more clearly, it 

 sometimes happens that when they breed in captivity, 

 the mother will destroy one or more of her offspring, a 

 circumstance which occurs still more frequently with 

 the true Carnivora, and some of the Rodentia. Their 

 young are born with their eyes open. 



From the foregoing account of the intellectual quali- 

 fications of the marmozets it is evident, that the high 

 esteem in which they were formerly held as pets must 

 have been due almost exclusively to the elegance of 

 their form, and the agility of their movements ; but 



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