72 



CLAWED MONKEYS. 



keepers and allow themselves to be caressed 

 and warmed by them; and they are very 

 disagreeable guests from their filthy habits 

 and on account of the putrid musky odour 

 which their urine, scattered all about, diffuses 

 round their cage. So far I have observed only 



Fig. 24.— The Ouiotiti or Common Marmoset (Hapale Jacchus). 



in Russian ladies a sometimes excessive fond- 

 ness for these elegant and pretty stinkards. 



The voice is a tremulous piping, which in 

 anger becomes a scream, almost like the 

 half- suppressed cry of a sucking infant. 

 Some species, perhaps all, sing in a state 

 of freedom when they think themselves quite 

 unobserved and secure, their notes, according 

 to the accounts of hearers, being like the 

 twittering of birds with flute tones inter- 

 mingled. 



The fur on the body is mostly woolly, and 

 at various parts the hair is often lengthened 

 into tufts, manes, and thick brushes. The tail 

 is always very long, sometimes with a terminal 

 tuft, sometimes more uniformly bushy. 



Among the Clawed Monkeys which have 

 been brought to us is the Silky Marmoset, 

 fig. 23 i^Hapale [Midas) rosalia), with brown 

 back and brown stripe on the crown of the 

 head, reddish -yellow fur, and gray-brown 

 naked face. Head and neck are surrounded 

 by a mane like that of a lion, which can be 

 erected when the creature is angry. The 

 tail has longer hair towards the extremity, 

 but no proper tuft. 



Of the intelligence of this and an allied species 

 Bates speaks very emphatically. " In Para," he 

 writes, "Midas tirsulus is often seen in a tame 

 state in the houses of the inhabitants. When full 

 grown it is about nine inches long, independently 

 of the tail, which measures fifteen inches. The fur 

 is thick, and black in colour, with the exception of 

 a reddish-brown streak down the middle of the 

 back. . . . Anatomists who have dissected species 

 of Midas tell us that the brain is of a very low type, 

 as far as the absence of convolutions goes, the sur- 

 face being as smooth as that of a squirrel's. I should 

 conclude at once that this character is an unsafe 

 guide in judging of the mental qualities of these 

 animals; in mobility of expression of countenance, 

 intelligence, and general manners these small 

 monkeys resemble the higher apes far more than 

 they do any rodent animal with which I am 

 acquainted. 



On the Upper Amazons I once saw a tame 

 individual of the Midas leoitinus [=Hapale or 

 Midas rosalia], a species first described by Hum- 

 boldt, which was still more playful and intel- 

 ligent than the one just described. This rare 

 and beautiful little monkey is only seven inches 

 in length, exclusive of the tail. It is named 

 leoninus on account of the long brown mane which 

 depends from the neck, and which gives it very 

 much the appearance of a diminutive lion. In 

 the house where it was kept it was familiar with 

 every one; its greatest pleasure seemed to be to 

 climb about the bodies of different persons who 

 entered. The first time I went in it ran across 

 the room straightway to the chair on which I had 

 sat down, and climbed up to my shoulder; arrived 

 there, it turned round and looked into my face, 

 showing its little teeth, and chattering, as though 

 it would say, 'Well, and how do you do.-"' It 

 showed more affection towards its master than 



