350 QUADRUMANA. 



ever, are very transient ; and the playful liveliness, and the gentleness, 

 not, indeed, unmixed with petulance, which they exhibit, while young, 

 gradually disappear, and ultimately become replaced by ferocity and 

 indomitable obstinacy. The disgusting habits, the ungovernable rage, 

 and the malice of some of the larger Monkeys and Baboons, when 

 fully adult, are conspicuous features of their character. 



When numbers tenant the same enclosure, though perpetually squab- 

 bling, they are less vindictive toward each other than might be expected ; 

 and it often happens that one, the youngest and weakest of the party, 

 becomes the object of care and solicitude to the rest, who, when menaced, 

 will huddle together, with their protege in the middle, and threaten with 

 grimaces their supposed enemy. 



The curiosity and amusing mimicry of these animals, especially while 

 young, appear to be the result of an excessive irritability of temperament, 

 inconsistent with that kind of tractability so eminently displayed by the 

 Dog. "They seem," says Mr. Bennett (Tower Menagerie Quad. Lond. 

 8vo. 1829, p. 141), " to give a momentary and but a momentary atten- 

 tion to every remarkable object that falls in their way ; but never appear 

 to remember it again ; for they wilj examine the same object, with the 

 same rapidity, as often as it occurs, and apparently without in the least 

 recognising it as that which they had seen before." They never become 

 thoroughly domesticated and reclaimed. It is true, that the perseverance 

 and ingenuity of Man, stimulated by necessity, have, as is well known, 

 conquered their indocility, to a certain extent, for the purposes of exhibi- 

 tion : they have been trained, not without cruelty, to perform various 

 tricks and feats of address or agility, at the command of their master ; 

 having been disciplined to connect the word of command with the feat to 

 be performed. But it is only in their adolescence that they will thus 

 bend to discipline, or brook chastisement : in their fully adult state they 

 are, with very rare exceptions, savage, malicious, dirty, and indomitable. 

 Indeed, it may decidedly be said, that, to whatever extent disciplined, 

 however aptly they may learn, and adroitly practise, the most cunning tricks, 

 and apparently affectionate as they may be to those who feed and 

 indulge them, their innate disposition remains unaltered : an inherent 

 love of mischief, a dangerous capriciousness of temper, and a proneness 

 to disgusting habits. Unlike the numerous valuable animals, in the other 

 orders of the Mammalia, which have been reclaimed by Man, they appear 

 incapable of obedience beyond the moment during which they are 

 actually under the fear of punishment ; the instant their keeper is out of 

 sight, the same offence, for which they have just been corrected, is 

 committed, with the same daring impudence as before. It would seem, 

 indeed, as if it were impossible to render them sensible, in the smallest 

 degree, of the mischief they have perpetrated. Hence, though a few 



