58 THE COMMON BABOON. 



the body, they arc, like all the Baboons, very slender. 

 Their general colour is a greyish brown ; and the 

 face, which is long, is of a tawny fiesh-coloiir. 

 They have pouches in their cheeks. The tail is 

 very short, and round it, to a considerable distance, 

 the posteriors are perfectly bare and callous *. 



The disposition of these Baboons is exceedingly 

 fer(5cIous ; and their appearance is^ at once, both 

 grotesque and fonnidable. They generally go in 

 troops, and are dangerous enemies, when collected 

 in any number. Their attitude is seldom upriglit, 

 preferring the use of four to that of two legs. 



In Siam they frequently sally forth in astonishing 

 numbers, to attack the villages, during the time 

 the labourers are occupied in the rice har- 

 vest, and plunder the habitations of whatever 

 provisions they can lay their paws on -j^. — Fruits, 

 corn, and roots, form their principal food, and in 

 obtaining these they often commit the most 

 violent outrages. Their great strength and the 

 sharpness of their claws, render them tbrmidable to 

 dogs, who always overcom.e them with difficulty, 

 except when excess in eating has rendered them, as 

 it sometimes does, heavy and inactive. When at 

 liberty one of them will easily overpower two or 

 three men, if they happen to be unprovided with 

 weapons of defence :|;. 



The females seldom bring forth more tlian one 



* Shaw, i. 10. 

 t TojIj D, in Buff. Quad. ; Buli: Quad. viii. 1.2-2.— 124- 



