EXTINCT MACAQUES. 121 



community, for writing again on the last day of 1877 Sergeant Brown says, 'There 

 are now four very large adult females, four younger and rather smaller, four females, 

 and <mr male of middle size, probably four years old, and five small ones just 

 entering on their third year. I think there are four females and one male, but am 

 not certain yet. There have been no births since 1875. They still travel together 

 from place to place, but straggle more, and seem to squabble more among themselves 

 since the old male died.' 



" In a letter, May 3rd, 1880, the sergeant says, ' The monkeys are all doing well ; 

 the young male born in 1874 is now master of the troop. There were four young 

 ones last spring, two of which had about an inch rudiment of tail. I expect seven 

 or eight births this summer. One large female was found by a labourer on May 

 20th, 1879, looking very sick; he gave it some coffee, but it died; its breasts were 

 full of milk, and it had probably just given birth to a young one, which was not 

 found. Last July I saw two full-grown females, each with a young one ; they sat 

 clown close to each other on the path, and were chattering and examining one 

 another's young, when the male monkey came and sat' down between them, and all 

 three were chattering away together for several minutes. Through the summer 

 the male was nearly always carrying one or other of the young ones.' 



" Sometimes a fight occurs among the monkeys, when it is surprising to witness 

 the rapidity with which they will follow an offender down the stupendous precipice 

 of the eastern face ; tumbling one after another, and catching at bits of bush or 

 projecting ledges on their way, they descend hundreds of feet in a moment or two. 

 Sometimes the sergeant dresses wounds on them, probably from this cause, but 

 they soon heal up." 



In captivity the magot, at least during youth, is lively, active, intelligent, and 

 good-tempered; but with advancing years it becomes sullen and capricious, and 

 finally spiteful and capricious. The French naturalist, Frederic Cuvier, observes 

 that the natural instinct, which causes these monkeys when in a wild condition to 

 associate together in troops, leads solitary individuals in confinement to make 

 friends of such animals as they are thrown in contact with. Such animals, if 

 sufficiently small, are carried about by the magots, who express their satisfaction 

 by hugging and caressing their burdens, and become furious when any attempts 

 are made to remove them. 



The magot is perhaps brought oftener to Europe than any other monkey; 

 its native climate being such as to permit of its existing with tolerable comfort 

 in more northerly regions. 



EXTINCT MACAQUES. 



Under the heading of the magot, incidental reference has been made to the 

 occurrence of fossil species of macaques, but as this is a subject of considerable 

 interest in regard to the present geographical distribution of these monkeys, we 

 must say a few words more. Asia being the headquarters of the group, it would 

 only be naturally expected that we should find these monkeys represented in a 

 fossil state on that continent. As a matter of fact, with the exception of India, we 

 know comparatively little of the geology of Asia. In India, however, fossil remains 



