28 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



conciled to captivity : it slept during the day, hiding 

 itself in the darkest recess it could find : it seldom played 

 with its master during its waking hours, but showed 

 particular cleverness in capturing flies ; and if irritated, 

 it hissed and struck with its paw like a cat, the throat 

 being at the same time inflated. Its voice, for so small 

 an animal, is extremely powerful : at times, it is de- 

 scribed as much resembling the howl of the American 

 tiger or jaguar ; and, at others, to be a kind of mew, 

 accompanied by a disagreeable guttural sound. 



The hair is grey, mixed with white, and glossed 

 with a silvery lustre : the centre of the back is marked 

 by a brown line ; and on the head and forehead are 

 three others, diverging, and of a black colour : the 

 chest, belly, and under surface of the limbs are yellowish 

 orange. The face resembles that of a cat, and is 

 covered with blackish hairs : the eyes are very large, 

 and the ridges of a bright yellow. The tail is bushy, 

 and half as long again as the body, which measured 

 nine inches a half. 



The Hand-drinking Monkey. 



Pithecia chiropotes, Humb. Capucin de I'Ormogue, lb. 

 Pithecia chiropotes, Geoff. 



Of all the numerous monkeys of the New World, 

 this, in the opinion of Humboldt, its first describer, 

 makes the nearest approach to the human form ; not so 

 much, indeed, in its size, which is scarcely above the 

 middle standard, but in the facial angle of its head be- 

 ing apparently much less than it really is, from the chin 

 being hid in a long and bushy beard. " It is a robust, 

 active, fierce, and untameable animal ; when irritated, it 

 raises itself on the hinder extremities, grinds its teeth, 

 rubs the end of the beard violently, and darts upon the 

 person who has excited its displeasure. In confinement 

 it is habitually melancholy ; it is never excited to gaiety, 

 except at the moment of receiving its favourite food ; 

 it seldom drinks; but when it does, the operation is per- 



