MONKEYS. 71 







ing thumbs, or members opposable to the fingers of 

 both the fore and hind limbs, which enables them to 

 grasp any object firmly with .either, and renders them 

 expert climbers. The most casual stroller through a 

 menagerie, must be immediately struck with the 

 surprising agility, the powerful leaps and swings, and 

 the complete gliding ease, with which alf these motions 

 are performed ; and an observer in their natural abodes 

 will soon arrive at the conclusion, that their habits 

 are strictly arboreal, and that their economy is in- 

 timately connected with the boundless forests of the 

 tropics. They are in fact seldom seen at any distance 

 from woods, and the species which inhabit craggy pre- 

 cipices, such as those in the neighbourhood of the Cape 

 of Good Hope, in Barbary, and about Gibraltar, deviate 

 from the type, become more quadruped in their form 

 and actions, and have therefore always been placed 

 last in our systems. 



Their true and natural abodes are the trackless 

 forests, which so richly clothe the countries under the 

 tropics, and which alike supply them with food, and 

 protect them from fhe heat of those scorching climes. 

 During the middle period of the day, these forests are 

 filled with the animal world, courting their grateful 

 shades, silent and resting ; and it is only in some deep 

 deep glade, " afraid to glitter in the noontide beams," 

 that the screams of an awakened parrot, or gambols of a 

 monkey, disturb the universal solitude. So soon, how- 

 ever, as a declining sun and the evening breezes reduce 



