SIMIAD^E. 507 



variable; ISCHIATIC CALLOSITIES moderate ; GENERAL CONTOUR light 

 but vigorous ; LIMBS muscular ; STOMACH simple ; TAIL long ; FUR 

 moderate, the hairs annulated. 

 COUNTRY. Africa. 



The Cercopitheci are all restricted to the African Continent,* and are 

 exclusively arboreal in their habits ; they tenant the wild forests that skirt 

 the rivers, and associate in large troops, being (as far as is known) all 

 gregarious in their habits. Their actions are full of energy ; restlessness, 

 petulance, and inquisitiveness mark their disposition. During infancy 

 they are gentle, but they become irascible and malicious with age. 

 Though their form is light, it is muscular and vigorous ; and the limbs 

 are well proportioned ; hence they differ very materially from the Semno- 

 pitheci, having neither the meagre contour of body, the long slender 

 limbs, nor the depressed face of the latter ; nor have they the bold 

 angular superciliary ridge so characteristic of the animals of that genus. 

 The chest is deep ; the loins are narrow ; the limbs of moderate length, 

 and muscular ; the muzzle is moderately prominent, giving a facial angle 

 of about 45 ; the tail is long, and acts, though not so decidedly as in the 

 Semnopitheci, as a rudder and balancer in their motions, which are 

 characterized by abruptness, energy, and decision. 



They express their displeasure by grinning and chattering, and 

 though seldom venturing to make a decided attack, yet, headed in large 

 numbers, inj their native woods, they harass and annoy, with missiles, 

 intruders within their bounds, and are not to be repelled without difficulty. 

 Their diet is almost exclusively frugivorous, and they often commit great 

 havoc in the fields of grain, in the vicinity of the wooded parts of the 

 country ; and that, not only by what they devour upon the spot, but, also, 

 by what they carry away in their cheek-pouches, which extend below the 

 angle of the lower-jaw, and which, when an opportunity happens, they 

 cram with food, to be eaten at leisure. In this respect we at once 

 perceive a material difference between the Cercopitheci and the Semo- 

 pitheci. The former have cheek-pouches and a simple stomach ; the 

 latter no cheek-pouches, but a complex stomach, consisting of various 

 compartments. The teeth of the Cercopitheci, independently of the 

 absence of the fifth tubercle on the crown of the last molar of the lower 

 jaw, differ from those of the Semnopitheci, by being more boldly tuber- 

 culate, and by not presenting, when worn, any appearance of re-entering 

 enamel. In the Cercopitheci, the thumb of the fore-hands is also more 

 developed, and the hands themselves are shorter, broader, and have 

 better pretensions to the title, than the long slender graspers of their 



* One species of Cercopithecus only, viz., the C. pygerythrus, or Vervet (with one species of 

 Baboon, the Cynocephalus porcarius, or Chacma), inhabits Africa, south of the Tropic of Capricorn 



