THE ORDER QUADRUMANA. 463 



CHAPTER VI. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE VIRGIN FORESTS : THE GREAT APES. 



IT is of their own free choice, to shelter themselves from the burning 

 arrows of the sun, to enjoy the dense shadows and delicious coolness 

 of the great trees, and, without doubt, to avoid the attacks of men, 

 that the elephant and the rhinoceros are denizens of the forest. But 

 a certain number of Mammals Nature seems to have specially designed 

 to people the forests, and for whom their general organization, and, 

 above all, the structure of their locomotive organs, appear to have left 

 the selection of no other abode. Such are, in the first place, the 

 genera, so numerous and so diverse, which compose the great order 

 of Quadrumana (" four-handed "), indistinctly comprehended, in 

 popular phraseology, under the denomination of Apes; such, too, are 

 the curious arboreal animals called Sloths ; and such, finally, in the 

 order Rodentia, are the Squirrels. 



In occupying ourselves, primarily, with the Apes, we do but 

 conform to the scientific classifications, all of which place these Mam- 

 mals immediately next to Man in the zoological series. 



Linne' originally proposed to designate, under the name of Primates 

 that is, the first, or chief of animals Man, in the first place ; next, 

 the Apes ; then the Galeopitheci (or Lemurs) ; and, finally, the 

 Cheiroptera (or Bats). This order of Primates, established by the 

 great Swedish naturalist, has been admitted by the majority of con- 

 temporary authors, who, however, have separated the Cheiroptera 

 from it. Many have also separated Man, and, as I think, have more 

 correctly placed him as a distinct genus in the order Bimana (or two- 

 handed). 



The Apes, or Quadrumana, are divided into two families that of 

 Apes, properly so called, and that of the Lemuridre, or Lemurs. 



