GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



6i 



Hands and feet are similarly formed. The I 

 fingers and toes always have flat nails. But 

 while the great toe is always powerful and 

 well-developed, the thumb is always weak, 

 often rudimentary, and in the spider-monkeys 

 it is altogether wanting as in the African 

 Colobi. 



The tail is never absent, but it is adapted 

 by its structure to a considerable variety of 

 functions. In some it is a prehensile organ, 

 which is used exactly like a fifth hand for 

 catching hold of the branches and enabling 

 the monkeys to make their position secure, 

 or even to suspend themselves from the 

 trees; in others it is a sensitive tactile organ, 

 the skin of the under surface of the extremity 

 being in that case without hair. Among the 

 Old World monkeys the tail never acts as an 

 organ of prehension or touch, only as a 

 rudder; but in many American monkeys the 

 prehensile function is so highly developed, 

 that even after death they remain suspended 

 by the tail until the tension of the muscles 

 is destroyed by the setting in of decomposi- 

 tion. 



In accordance with the structure of tail and 

 feet just described all American monkeys 

 without exception are arboreal animals, which 

 descend to the ground only occasionally for 

 water, or to plunder a plantation, or to pass 

 from one tree to another. Terrestrial mon- 

 keys in America there are none, and the 

 treeless crests of the mountains have always 

 constituted an impassable barrier limiting 

 their distribution. 



The external habits of life are thus much 

 more uniform in America than in the Old 

 World, and with few variations in detail all 

 the monkeys of the New World live in a 

 similar manner, in large troops, seldom alone 

 or in small families; and their habitation is 

 the tops of the trees of the primeval forests, 

 where they move about with the same security 

 and rapidity as other animals on the ground, 

 and where they find abundance of food. 



All observers agree in thinking that the 



American monkeys are mentally much less 

 gifted than those of the Old World, and they 

 appear to stand on a lower level than these 

 also as regards the enjoyment of life. Their 

 endowments are, indeed, quite sufficient for 

 their requirements. They have cunning and 

 intelligence enough to be able to procure 

 their food, defend themselves against enemies, 

 and shelter themselves from the inclemency 

 of the weather; but the exuberant vivacity, 

 the disposition to tease, the liability to sudden 

 changes of mood which distinguish the Old 

 World monkeys, are all qualities in which 

 those of America are very deficient. Only a 

 few of the sajous approach the guenons in 

 the rapidity of their movements and constant 

 restlessness ; most of the others are extremely 

 slow and cautious in climbing. The young 

 play little ; the old often sit for hours together 

 with grave faces, as if sunk in melancholy 

 reflections, and only on the approach of 

 danger do they show by the rapidity of their 

 flight the energy of which they are capable. 

 Their disposition is peaceable, patient, con- 

 fiding. Quarrels and fights very rarely dis- 

 turb the harmony which prevails among the 

 members of a band. Even old animals are 

 easily tamed, although some only by the 

 adoption of singular methods contrived by 

 the Indians, among whom many species are 

 kept as domestic animals, and that all the 

 more readily since they become really affec- 

 tionate in their ways, and the tendency to 

 destroy is not very conspicuous in them. 

 Although they are just as sincerely attached 

 to their young, and tend them with the same 

 care as the monkeys of the Old World, even 

 (as is the rule with many species) dragging 

 about two young ones with them for months 

 after birth, yet one does not observe in them 

 that bestial sensuality which gets the entire 

 command of many of the Old World mon- 

 keys. Their inferior mental powers render 

 them litde adapted for drill, and while people 

 are glad to see them in monkey-houses, and 

 even on account of their gentle disposition 



