44 GRIVET, GREEN MONKEY, AND VERVET. 





Very little is known of the habits of this animal, but it is said to be a gentle creature 

 feeding on insects as well as on the usual vegetable food for monkeys. 



It is a native of Abyssinia, and its name " Guereza " is its Abyssinian title 



The beauty of its fur causes it to be much sought after by the natives of the country, 

 who make its skin into coverings for the curiously shaped shields which they bear. 

 The white fringe is that the part is chiefly valued, and its appearance on a shield 

 points out at once a person of distinction in its bearer. 



We now arrive at a group of small monkeys, with exceedingly long names. The term 

 " Cercopithecus " is composed from two Greek words, signifying " tailed ape." 



The monkeys belonging to this genus are very abundant in their native forests, and 

 the unfortunate peripatetic monkeys that parade the streets in tormenting company 

 with barrel organs, or seated on the backs of dejected and pensive bears, are mostly 

 members of this group. The first glance at one of these monkeys will detect a peculiar 

 sheen of the fur, that bewilders the eye and conceals the precise color. If, however, 

 the hairs are examined separately, each hair will be found to be varied in color several 

 times, black and yellow being the principal colors. First the hair will be black for a 

 part of its length, then yellow, then black again, and so on to the tip. As the black has 

 something of a bluish tinge in it, the mixture of the yellow and blue gives an undefined 

 greenish hue, which in the central figure of the engraving is so decided, as to cause the 

 name of Green Monkey to be given to the animal. 



QRIVET. GREEN MONKEY. VERVET. 



Cercopithecus Eagythlthla. Cercopithecus Saboeus. Cercopithecus Pygerftbrus 



The Cercopitheci are remarkable for the singularly large development of the cheek 

 pouches, which seem to possess an illimitable power of extension, and to accumulate a 

 strange medley of articles. Supply one of these monkeys with nuts or biscuit, and 

 he will contrive to put the greater part of the food into his cheek pouches, only eating 

 a small portion at the time.. 



I never knew but one instance when the pouches were quite full, and even then th 

 monkey was a small one, and the nuts were large. The little creature was liberally 

 gifted with nuts, with the special purpose of ascertaining the capabilities of the pouches, 

 and after dilating its cheeks to a wonderful extent with large " cob " nuts it was at last 

 compelled to empty them into its hands. 



These pouches have been aptly compared to the stomach of a ruminant animal, 

 and are employed in much the same manner. By means of the possession of these 

 natural cupboards, the monkey is enabled to make little incursions, to eat as much food 

 as hunger demands, and to carry away sufficient nourishment for one or two meals more, 

 without being embarrassed in its retreat by its burden. 



It is worth notice that the word "monkey " is derived from the name of one of this 

 group, the Mona. The diminutive of Mona is Monikin, the transition from which word 

 to our " monkey " is sufficient by evident. 



