.^8 



QuADKUMANA. MAMMALIA. Cebid.b. 



are to be weighed. Elirenborg thinks, with some pro- 

 bability, that the singular head-dress which is so 

 frequeutly represented on Egyptian monuments, was 

 an imitation of the remarkable hairy covering of this 

 sacred raonkej'. 



THE COMMON BABOON {Cynocqilialus Papio), the 

 last species to which we shall refer, is a native of the 

 western coast of Africa, where it appears to bo exceed- 

 ingly abundant. Of all the baboons it is the one which 

 is most frequently brought to this country, and its good 

 temper, familiarity, and curious habits when young, 

 render it a great favourite with the visitors to mena- 

 geries. As it increases in age, however, it acquires the 

 same repulsive habits as its allies, although perhaps in 

 a somewhat less degree, and in some cases the adult 

 males have been known to retain much of their youth- 

 ful docility. It also exhibits great intelligence. 



The general colour of this baboon is reddish-brown ; 

 the whiskers are lightfawu colour; the face nearly black, 

 and the callosities reddish -violet. It is one of those 

 SimiadiB which support the climate of Europe with 

 least inconvenience, and it has frequently bred in our 

 menageries. The adults, and even the males, exhibit 

 much attachment to the young animals, nursing them 

 with great tenderness whilst they are very young, and 

 treating them afterwards with far more kindness than 

 is usually shown by monkeys in captivity towards their 

 offspring. 



With the baboons we terminate the long series of 

 interesting species which constitute the family Simiadcc, 

 and at the same time the first section of the great tribe 

 of SlMl/B or monkc3's. In these, as already stated 

 (p. 14), the nostrils are placed close together and 

 separated only by a narrow partition; whilst in the 

 second section of the Simite the nose is broad and flat 

 and the nostrils separated by a wide interval. We 

 have already adverted to the remarkable zoological 

 distribution of these two nearly-related groups of 

 animals; the first section, Catarrhiiw, being restricted 

 to the eastern hemisphere, while the PlatijrrMnc, or 

 Flat-nosed monkeys are as exclusively confined to the 

 New World. In the Old World, as we have seen, the 

 monkeys are almost exclusively inhabitants of tropical 

 regions, and this is still more decidedly the case in 

 America, where these animals are confined to the 

 forests of the hottest parts of the southern continent. 



Although the species of American monkeys are 

 exceedingly numerous, they presejit no such variety of 

 form and habits as their eastern brethren, and we shall 

 therefore be able, by selecting a few of the more strik- 

 ing species, to give the reader a good idea of the whole 

 group. They are all of small or medium size, and 

 arboreal in their habits ; all are destitute of cheek- 

 pouches and callosities, which are possessed by the 

 majority of the Old World species ; their food is of a 

 mixed animal and vegetable nature ; and in their dis- 

 positions they are usually good-tempered, docile, and 

 intelligent. Nevertheless, with all these characters in 

 common, the American monkeys present certain struc- 

 tural peculiarities, by which they may be divided into 

 tvro distinct families. 



Family II.— CEBID^. 



The first and most important of these families is that 

 of the CebidiE, which is at once distinguished from all the 

 other monkeys by a most important character, namely, 

 the presence of four additional molars — there being six of 

 these teeth in each side of each jaw; so that, the number 

 and distribution of the other teeth remaining the same, 

 there are in all thirty-six teeth in this family, whilst 

 the rest of the monkeys have only thirty-two. From 

 the second family of American monkeys the Cebida; 

 further differ in having the fingers all furnished with 

 flat nails. With but one or two exceptions they have 

 very long tails, and m most cases these organs are pre- 

 hensile at the tip, so that those creatures are, as it 

 were, provided with a fifth hand, which is of the greatest 

 service to them in their rapid and agile movements 

 amongst the branches of the frees. 



THE KED HOWLING MONKEY {Mycdcs Senkulm), 

 Plate 2, fig. 5. Tlie llowlers, or howling monkeys 

 {Mycctes), are the largest and most robust of the 

 American monkeys, appearing in some respects to 

 represent in the New Continent the orangs and chim- 

 panzees of the Old World. Their jaws are large 

 and powerful, and armed with strong teeth, the struc- 

 ture of which indicates their food to be principally of a 

 vegetable nature. Their colours are usually reddish 

 or brown, and they are furnished with a long and well- 

 furred tail, which has the tip naked on the lower sur- 

 face, and is strongly prehensile. 



The most remarkable peculiarity of these animals, 

 and the one to which their name of howlers refers, 

 consists in the fearful noise which they produce every 

 morning and evening, and often during the night, 

 which, according to Humboldt and Azara, may be 

 heard at a distance of more than a mile. Azara com- 

 pares the noise " to the creaking of a great number of 

 ungreased carts ;" and Waterton states that, on hearing 

 the howlers in the primreval forests of Guiana, "you 

 would suppose that half the wild beasts of the forest 

 were collecting for the work of carnage ; now it is the 

 tremendous roar of the jagxiar, as he springs on his 

 prey ; now it changes to his deep-toned growlings, aa 

 he is pressed on all sides by superior force ; and now 

 you hear his last dying moan beneath a mortal wound." 

 It is still a question whether these terrible bowlings 

 are produced by a single monkey at a time, or by a 

 general chorus of a whole tribe ; but the Indians fully 

 believe that one of the number commences the concert. 

 Marcgrave, in his " Natural History of Brazil," pub- 

 lished in 1G48, gives us, evidently from the reports of 

 the Indians, a very circumstantial account of the pro- 

 ceedings of the howlers. He says that every morning 

 and evening these monkeys assemble in the woods, 

 and tliat one of them then perches himself in the 

 highest place he can reach, and makes a sign to the 

 others to sit around him. He then commences his 

 discourse, with a voice so loud, that, according to our 

 autlior, it might be supposed that the whole of them 

 were howling together, although they sit in the most 

 decorous manner in perfect sUcnoe, listening to the 

 vociferation of the self-elected preacher. When the 

 latter ceases, however, he makes another siga with his 



