24 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



really form a part of Africa. The baboons are the 

 largest apes, after the anthropoid ones. They are also the 

 most quadrupedal in their mode of propulsion, and have 

 by far the most prominent muzzle, being known as the 

 cynocephali^ or dog-headed apes. The ape with the most 

 exaggerated snout is the chacma (Fig. 5«) of South Africa. 

 It is a very powerful brute, which lives in troops among 

 rocks, and, though mainly a vegetable feeder, ^vi]l also 

 eat eggs, large insects, and scorpions, which it is said 

 to deprive of their sting by a very sudden and dexterous 

 pinch. 



One of the most singular of the baboons is the 

 mandrill, which exceeds the chimpanzee in bulk of body, 

 It is remarkable for the brilliant coloration of its face, 

 the cheeks being brilliant blue, the nose vermilion, and 

 the beard golden yellow . It was an example of this species 

 which, in the earlier years of this century, w^as known at 

 Exeter Change as " Happy Jerry," and used to smoke his 

 pipe and drink his glass of gin and water before admiring 

 visitors. The venerable relics of this felicitous ape are 

 still carefully preserved in the national collection at the 

 British Museum. 



With the baboons, we end the series of Old World 

 forms. In America we can find nothing which at all 

 closely resembles them. It has been suggested that the 

 howling monkeys, the largest in bulk, may be taken as 

 the representatives in the New World of the baboons of 

 the Old, but we know nothing, either in their organisation 

 or their habits, which really warrants the suggestion. 

 Instead of being rock dwellers and quadrupedal in their 

 locomotion, howling monkeys are extremely arboreal, 

 and are one of those groups which, as before observed, are 

 furnished with a perfectly prehensile tail. As their 

 name implias, they are most noted for their prodigious 



