59 
shad an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches 
together, and seat herself within a minute; she afterwards received 
our fire without moving, and expired in her lofty abode, whence it 
cost us much trouble to dislodge her. I have seen some individuals 
with nails on the posterior thumbs, but generally speaking they 
are devoid of them: of the five animals sent home, two have the nails 
and three are devoid of them; one has the nail- well-formed, and in 
the other it is merely rudimentary. The length of my letter pre- 
cludes my dwelling on many particulars, which, as I have not seen 
the recent publications on the subject, might be mere repetitions, 
and I will only mention, as briefly as I can, the skulls of these ani- 
mals in my possession. From my late sad experience I am induced 
to this, that some brief record may be preserved from shipwreck. 
These skulls may be divided into three distinct sorts. The first pre- 
sents two ridges, one rising from each frontal bone, which joining on 
the top of the head, form an elevated crest, which runs backward 
to the cerebral portion of the skull. 
‘«« The second variety is the Simia Morio, and nothing need be added 
to Mr. Owen’s account, save that it presents no ridge whatever be- 
yond the frontal part of the head. No. 9 in the “collection is the 
skull of an adult male: No. 2 the male, nearly adult, killed by my- 
self: Nos. 11 and 3 adult females, killed by myself: No. 12 a young 
male, with three molars, killed by myself: No. 21 a young male, 
died aboard, with three molars: No. 19, young male, died aboard, 
with two molars. There are many other skulls of the Simia Morio 
which exactly coincide with this suite, and this suite so remarkably 
coincides through the different stages of age, one with another, that 
no doubt can exist of the Simia Morio being a distinct species. The 
different character of the skull, its small size and small teeth, put 
the matter beyond doubt, and completely establish Mr. Owen’s acute 
and triumphant argument, drawn from a single specimen. 
“The third distinction of the skulls is, that the ridges rising from 
the frontal bones do not meet, but converge towards the top of the 
head, and again diverge towards the posterior portion of the skull. 
These ridges are less elevated than in the first-mentioned skulls, but 
the size of the adult skulls is equal, and both present specimens of 
aged animals. For a long time I was inclined to think the skulls 
with the double ridge were the females of the animals with the single 
and more prominent ridge, but No. 1 (already described as killed by 
myself) will show that the double ridge belongs to an adult, and not 
young male animal, and that it belongs to the Simia Wurmbii with 
the huge callosities. The distinction therefore cannot be a distinc- 
tion of sex, unless we suppose the skulls with the greater develop- 
ment of the single ridge to belong to the female, which is improbable 
in the highest degree. The skulls with the double and less elevated 
ridges belong, as proved by No. 1, to the Simia Wurmbii; and I am 
of opinion the single and higher ridge must be referred to another 
and distinct species, unless we can account for this difference on the 
score of age. ‘This, I conceive, will be found impossible, as Nos. 7 
and 20 are specimens similar to No. 1, with the double and less ele- 
