144 



CHAPTER XL 



A DYING MONKEY. MONKEY GAMBOLS. THE RACOON. 



THE OPOSSUM. PHENOMENA. ELEGANT BIRDS. THE 



PARTRIDGE. — BIRD-NOTES. 



T^HERE is no great variety of monkeys in 

 Central America, but in the forest those 

 few varieties abound. In general they are a 

 very wandering race, for a troop of monkeys 

 may arrive at a spot, stay a few days and de- 

 part, nobody knowing from whence they came 

 or where the}^ are gone to ; and in this respect 

 they very much resemble the racoon. Very 

 often in my travels I have had the luck to 

 take the noon of day rest under a clump of 

 trees by a stream's side, with a large troop 

 of monkeys over my head ; — how different are 

 their playful ways, their leaps and antics, 

 assisted so much by their prehensile tails, from 

 the solemn buffoonery of the Gibraltar tailless 

 ape ! I have never but once fired at a monkey 

 and would never do it again, except at a 

 troop of plunderers, — and then a good example 

 is not lost on their little community ; wan- 

 tonly shooting them is cruel and useless ; but 



