ORDER QUADRUMANA. 313 



person wKile speaking, and if it be allowed to sit on the 

 shoulder will frequently touch the lips, teeth, or tongue. 

 Like many of the small American monkeys, it is extremely 

 fond of insects. During damp or cold weather, in the 

 forest, or when several of these animals are in a cage, they 

 crowd as closely together as possible, embrace each other 

 with their arms and with the tail, which seems to have 

 induced an erroneous idea that their tail is prehensile. 

 They are difficult to domesticate, and fetch a considerable 

 price. 



The Douroucouli (Simia trivergata of Humboldt) is one 

 of the most remarkable and insulated of the quadrumanous 

 race. We were first made acquainted with it by the Baron 

 Humboldt. It is by its manners rather than its physical 

 traits that it is so distinct from other monkeys, and had 

 we not the authority of so great a scientific scholar as 

 Humboldt, we might well doubt the reality of its belonging 

 to the monkey race. The same author, however, while he 

 has discovered and described many new species of the 

 quadrumana has also more completely displayed the imper- 

 fect state of our knowledge in respect to these and other 

 animals. The several species he describes were found ex- 

 clusively located, and within very narrow limits; and when 

 the immense tracts of the earth's surface, not only in Ame- 

 rica, but elsewhere, which have not been visited by Euro- 

 peans or men of science, are considered, we may well con- 

 clude that our present zoological catalogues, however ex- 

 tensive, are still but very partial. 



Humboldt separates the Douroucouli into a distinct 

 family under the name of Aotes (ocojtoi), consisting of this 

 single species. Under the impression that artificial grouping 

 of the animal kingdom, which in due bounds is of the 

 greatest assistance to the memory, becomes burthensome 

 and oppressive rather than serviceable to that faculty when 

 carried too far, we cannot but think that the appropriation 



