78 MAMMALIA—MALBROUCK. 
by washing, rubbing, and drying them, in spite of the pettish cries and 
resistance of the infant siamang, is highly ludicrous and amusing. 
THE MALBROUCK# 
TuHEsE animals are found in Bengal,* where travellers inform us they 
plunder whole fields of grain, and plantations of sugar-canes ; and while 
one stands sentinel on a tree, the others load themselves with the booty, 
But if the owner of the field or plantation appears, to interrupt their depre- 
dations, their faithful companion on the look-out, gives notice, by crying 
out, houp, houp, howp, which the rest perfectly understand; and, all at once, 
throwing down their plunder which they hold in their left hands, they 
scamper off upon three legs, holding the remainder in their right, and save 
themselves from their pursuers by climbing up trees, where they have their 
general abode. The females, even loaded with their young ones, clasp 
them close to their breast, leap like the others, from branch to branch, and 
escape with the rest. When it happens that they cannot find any provision 
in the fields, they get on the tops of houses, and, having pulled off the tiles, 
do great damage to the inside. They do not eat a single thing, without 
smelling at it for a long time beforehand; and when they have satisfied 
their hunger, they put the remainder in their cheek pouches, for the next 
day: they destroy the nests of birds, and never fail to throw the eggs on 
the ground, when they want appetite or inclination to eat them. 
The most formidable enemy these animals have, is the serpent; no other 
animal of the forest being able to surprise them, as they are so exceedingly 
swift and subtle, and easily climb up and seat themselves on the tops of the 
highest trees. The monkey, (says a traveller,) has it in his power to be 
master of the forest; for there are neither tigers nor lions which can dispute 
the possession with it. The chief animal it has to fear, and which attacks 
it both night and day, is the snake. There are some snakes in those forests 
of a prodigious size, which wind up the trees where the monkeys reside, 
and, when they happen to surprise them sleeping, swallow them whole 
before the little animals have time to make a defence. 
The malbrouck has pouches on each side of its cheeks, and callosities on 
1 Cercocebus cynosurus. The Cercocebus is a sub-genus of the Cercopithecus, whict 
includes Simiz with four upper and four lower incisors ; canines, two upper and twe 
Jower; molars, ten upper and ten lower. Canines a little projecting, with intermediate 
spaces for their reception; posterior molars with only four tubercles. Head rounded 4 
facial angle, forty-five to fifty degrees ; ears sometimes rounded, sometimes slightly angu- 
lar ; thumbs distinct, more or less approade to the fingers ; cheek pouches ; callosities 
on the buttocks, with the exception of one species; tail as long at least as the bedy, often 
turned up on the back. 
* Some later naturalists are of opinion, that the malbrouck is not a native of India, 
but of Africa. 
