A JANUARY DAY AT REGENTS PARK. 25 



disposes it around him in such a manner that not a 

 vestige of his person can be seen. 



In a large cage, where a number of the smaller 

 monkeys are congregated, the ruling power of the 

 establishment was evidently the huge white and black 

 cat, who lay calmly dozing among all the restless 

 quadrumana, supremely indifferent to their noisy 

 gambols. Even when a graceless monkey leaped on 

 her back from a perch, and was straightway assaulted 

 by one of his companions, the cat did not even open 

 her eyes, but lay purring, with her paws tucked com- 

 fortably under her chin, in utter unconcern. Pussy has 

 been used to monkeys for so long a time that she is 

 quite uncomfortable out of their presence, and cannot 

 endure being placed in the open air. The keeper 

 fetched her out of the cage to enable us to judge of her 

 weight, which is really wonderful for a cat of the 

 gentler sex, and hardly was she fairly on the ground, 

 and the door of the cage opened, than she leapt through 

 the aperture and resumed her former position. 



No sooner did the shades of evening become per- 

 ceptible than the monkeys made arrangements for the 

 night, ceasing from their sports, and even allowing the 

 armadillo to run about the cage according to its 

 pleasure, without jumping on its back for a ride, or 

 trying to pull it over as it trotted past them. They 

 congregate together in compact bodies, presenting 

 a most absurd effect of parti-coloured fur, inter- 

 twined limbs, and long dangling tails, and were con- 



