560 



QUADRUMANA. 



thumb of the posterior extremities, are armed with compressed nails, 

 pointed like claws. By the aid of these nails they climb trees like 

 squirrels, for the conformation of their hands does not permit them 

 to seize hold of branches like monkeys. 



The monkeys of the American continent are dis- 

 tinguished by having four more teeth than those of 

 the Old World, making thirty-six in all ; their tail is 

 long, they have no cheek pouches, the hinder part, 

 of their body is hairy, and unprovided with callosities, 

 and their nostrils are situated at the sides of the 

 nose, not beneath it. They inhabit vast forests, and 

 climb the trees with most surprising agility. Their 

 lengthy tail serves them as a balancing pole, where- 

 with to keep their equilibrium while leaping, and 

 some possess the power of wrapping its extremity 

 round objects, and holding them with so tenacious 

 a grasp, that the animal can thus suspend itself from 



FlG. 483. HOWLING MONKKY. 



According to the 



the branches as with a fifth hand. 



difference of the conformation of the tail, the 



monkeys of America are divided into two principal 



groups. 



