CHAPTER. 1 1 



APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS, Order PRIMATES. 



THE MAN-LIKE APES. 

 Family SlMIIDJS. 



EVERYBODY knows what an ape or a monkey is, and the proverb " mischievous as 

 a monkey " reveals the estimation in which the latter animals are commonly held. 

 The more or less human-like form, the frequent tendency to assume an upright 

 position, coupled with their hand-like feet, would be amply sufficient to distinguish 

 the group to which these animals belong from all others, were it not for the 

 circumstance that there are the less well-known creatures termed Lemurs, which, 

 while evidently related to monkeys, yet differ from them in so many respects as 

 to render it almost or quite impossible to give any characteristics which will 

 absolutely distinguish the order to which they belong from all others. This is, 

 however, a difficulty with which the zoologist has often to put up with, and to 

 make the best of. 



That the higher apes are closely related in their bodily structure to man 

 is obvious to all, and it is a fact that the differences between some of these apes 

 and man are, from a purely anatomical point of view, of far less importance than 

 those by which the lower monkeys are separated from the higher apes. It has, 

 indeed, been attempted to show that apes and monkeys are sharply distinguished 

 from man by the circumstance that while man is two-handed, apes and monkeys 

 are four-handed. The difference between the foot of one of the larger apes and 

 that of man is, however, merely one of degree, and is much less than that between 

 the apes and the lowest representatives of the order, as is well shown in the accom- 

 panying illustration, which illustrates the various forms assumed by the hand and 

 foot of these animals. 



Although the larger apes are those which come nearest to man in their 

 general organisation, yet the strong ridges on the skulls of the adults, and the 

 consequent overhanging and prominent eyebrows, give them an expression which, 

 at the best, is but a gross caricature of the human countenance. It is, however, in 

 the young of these animals, where the ridges on the skull are much less developed, 

 and the tusks or canine teeth of the males have not attained the dimensions which 

 they reach in the adult state, that we find a much more human-like cast of 

 expression. Moreover, some of the smaller apes, in which the great ridges on the 

 skull are never developed, approach much more nearly in the shape of their skulls 

 to the human type. The larger apes are, indeed, repulsive animals in the adult 

 condition ; and it is usually only the smaller kinds of monkeys which are kept as 

 pets. 



