ENTELLUS MONKEY. 11 



traveller Thunberg, died from cold in the temperate 

 latitudes of Southern Africa. The specimens both of 

 the Paris and Zoological menageries did not, in fact, 

 long survive their arrival in Europe. Thunberg, who 

 had an opportunity of seeing these animals on the island 

 of Ceylon/says that they are by no means uncommon, and 

 that the natives have such a superstitious feeling towards 

 them, that they are treated with respect: tame indi- 

 viduals are seen in the houses ; and these are often visited 

 by their wilder brethren of the woods. The latter, it is 

 true, are scared away by the natives, but never de- 

 stroyed. " Emboldened by this impunity, the monkeys 

 come down from the woods in large herds, and take 

 possession of the produce of the husbandman's toil with 

 as little ceremony as though it had been collected for 

 their use : with a degree of taste that does them credit, 

 they prefer the cultivated fruits of the orchard to the 

 wild ones of their native forests. Figs, cocoa-nuts, 

 apples, pears, and even cabbages and potatoes (yams?), 

 form their favourite food. The numbers in which they 

 assemble render it impossible for the sufferer to drive 

 them away, without some more effectual means than he 

 is willing to employ. He is thus compelled to remain 

 a quiet spectator of the devastation, and to submit with- 

 out repining to his fate." The scientific history of this 

 species is amply illustrated in the work which has fur- 

 nished the above extract. We must Ukewise notice a 

 very remarkable circumstance connected with the change 

 of form which this monkey and several of its congeners 

 undergoes in the shape of the cranium, or skull, between 

 the period of early youth and matured age, since it il- 

 lustrates the truth of one of the primary axioms of the 

 phrenologists. " In the early stages of their growth," 

 observes Mr. Bennett, " the forehead is broad and 

 elevated, the cavity of the cranium proportionally large, 

 and the muzzle but slightly prominent ; but as they 

 advance in age, the forehead gradually diminishes in 

 size, contracting in a remarkable degree the dimensions 

 of the cavity within, and the muzzle is prolonged to a 

 considerable extent. These changes, which are common 



