ORDER QUADRUMANA. 335 



of selecting as a generic character, the absence or pre- 

 sence, or extent of an organ, so slightly connected with 

 the essential organization, and so triflingly influential, (in 

 the old world at least,) on the habits of these animals. 

 Still, we think, that the term ape may, with due quali- 

 fications, be conveniently retained as a designation of the 

 orang tribe. It is an English word, and familiar to English 

 ears, and if right notions be attached to its application, it 

 will be more eligible as a generic name, than any foreign 

 or factitious appellation. 



After the Apes, came another family of quadrumana 

 which were distinguished by the generic title of Baboons. 

 Buffon distinguishes this family by the short tail, the 

 lengthened visage, the large projecting muzzle, the longer 

 canine teeth, and the posterior callosities. Thus, as he 

 imagined, were excluded from this family, all monkeys 

 without tails, all the guenons, all the sapajous and sagoins, 

 and all the makis, loris and other quadrumana with slender 

 and pointed muzzles. Of the correctness of this definition 

 and the justice of some of these exclusions, our readers are 

 already in possession of the materials of judging. 



The ancients appear to have had no proper name for the 

 baboons. Aristotle alone seems to have designated one of 

 this family under the appellation of Simia Porcaria, and 

 even his notice of the animal is but indirect. The Italians 

 were the first who gave it the name of babuino, the Germans 

 called it bavion, the French^ babouin, and modern Latin 

 writers on zoological subjects have formed from these the 

 word Papio, which now serves to designate some of the 

 species of this sub-genus. Buffon acknowledges but three 

 species of baboons: the Papio, or great baboon, the Man- 

 drill, and the Ouanderou. 



The Magot, which is nothing but the Pithecus of Buf- 

 fon in an adult state, as the Pithecus itself was no other 

 than a young Magot, this writer considers with much ap- 



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