COS NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Favourite food. 



In their native forests, these quadrupeds are 

 supposed to subsist principally on fruits, hut in a 

 state of confinement they will occasionally feed 

 on insects, snails, &c. One that was brought to 

 England in an East-India ship was peculiarly 

 fond of the smaller kind of spiders and their 

 eggs, but he uniformly refused the larger ones, 

 os well as the large blue-bottle flies, though he 

 frequently ate the common ones. 



Mr. Edwards saw and drew one of these ani- 

 mals belonging to a lady, who informed him that 

 it ate various kinds of food, as biscuits, fruit, ve- 

 getables, snails, and insects; and that once, when 

 let loose, it snatched a Chinese gold fish out of a 

 bason of water, which it killed and greedily de- 

 voured. After this, by way of trial, some small 

 live eels were given to him, which frighted him 

 much at first, by twisting round his neck ; but he 

 soon called forth resolution enough to master and 

 eat them. 



A pair of these animals, in the possession of a 

 merchant at Lisbon, had young at that place. 

 These at their birth were excessively ugly, hav- 

 ing little or no fur. They would frequently cling 

 very fast to the breasts of the dam ; and when 

 they grew a little, they used to hang on her back 

 or shoulders. When she was tired, she would 

 rub them oif against the wall or whatever else 

 was near, as the only mode of ridding herself of 

 them. On being forced from the female, the 

 male immediately took them to him, and suffered 



