556 QUADRUMANA. 



ance in the twilight of fine summer evenings, frequenting the sides 

 of woods, glades, and shady walks ; or skimming over the surface 

 of quiet waters, where moths, gnats, and other nocturnal insects 

 are most abundant :. hut in stormy weather, it remains shut up in 

 the chinks and fissures of old ruins, or concealed in hollow trees. 



ORDER IX. MAMMALIA WITH FOUR HANDS. 



QUADRUMANA.* 



There yet remains a spacious region to be tenanted 

 with fit inhabitants. The vast forests in many parts 

 of the world constitute by no means an unimportant 

 territory. Umbrageous solitudes, through which the 

 foot of man has never found a path, covering whole 

 countries with unbroken shade, where endless sum- 

 mer reigns, and fruits, and flowers, and foliage, in 

 perpetual succession, furnish inexhaustible supplies 

 of nourishment. In these dense woods, where giant 

 trees are interlaced with creeping plants, innumera- 

 ble Monkeys find their home, and spring from stem 

 to stem, and bough to bough, with wonderful alacrity, 

 making the woods alive with merry gambolings. The 

 great feature whereby the Quadrumana are distin- 

 guishable, is that all their four feet are generally pro- 

 vided with thumbs, which are free and opposable to the 

 other fingers. Although a few of them have a con- 

 siderable resemblance to the human form, they pro- 

 gressively recede from it until the lower tribes walk 

 exclusively on four legs, like ordinary quadrupeds. 

 Nevertheless, the freedom of their arms, and the 

 structure of their hands, allow many of them to 

 imitate the gestures and actions of mankind with 

 ludicrous exactness. The entire order is formed for 

 living in the trees of tropical forests w r here the 

 prehensile character of their feet renders them per- 

 fectly at home. Here they run, jump, and drop 

 from bough to bough, or spring from tree to tree, 



* Quatuor, four ; maims, a hand four-handed. 



