MONA MONKEY. 3 



which poets and mytholo- 

 jists assign to the goddess 

 'of hunting. It is one of the 

 most gentle -and graceful 

 monkeys usually seen in 

 menageries. Of its habits 

 in a state of nature we know 

 nothing. A living specimen, 

 in the Zoological Gardens, 

 is described as " moderately 

 playfal, and quite familiar." It is a native of Western 

 Africa, and is stated, by Marcgrave and the older na- 

 turalists, to inhabit the forests of Congo and Guinea. 



In size, the Diana monkey is about eighteen inches 

 in length, without reckoning the tail, which is very 

 long, and measures nearly two feet. Its colouring is 

 peculiarly varied and graceful : the head, neck, sides, 

 and middle of the body beneath, are of a dark ash-colour, 

 which becomes gradually darker on the outside of the 

 limbs and tail, and is finally converted into a deep black 

 at the extremities. The face and ears are intensely 

 black. Besides the white frontal band before alluded to, 

 there are broad bushy tufts of white hairs on the sides of 

 the face and on the chin, v.'hich is thus ornamented by 

 a flat beard, two or three inches long : the chest and 

 inside of the arms is covered by a well defined patch of 

 white, and another, of a light orange, is on the belly.* 



The Mona Monkey. 



Cercopithecus Mona, Geojf., Griff. Cuv. i. 268. Zool Gard. 

 ii. 37. 



There is a general resemblance between this and the 

 Diana monkey ; but the Mona is still more beautiful in 

 its colours, and more elegant in its form. It appears, in 

 short, to exhibit a superiority of sagacity, of penetration, 

 and of gentleness, far above any other species of its 

 tribe. It seems to be a native more of Northern than 

 of Tropical Africa. We owe to M. F. Cuvier the fol- 



* Zool. Gard. ii. 35. 

 B 2 



