CH. V FAUNA OF TALIS SE 83 



little under three feet in height. These haboons are usually 

 Been in pairs, but sometimes a family of seven or eight 

 may be found together feeding in a tree. Such families 

 invariably consist of a pair of adults and a number of young 

 ones. The natives told me that these baboons, -w-hen once 

 paired, remain faithful to one another untU separated by 

 death. I should not like to place too much confidence in the 

 veracity of this story ;. but at the same time I should like to 

 point out that any information we can obtain concerning 

 the social arrangements of the Quadrumana is likely to be 

 of the greatest possible interest. Ethnologists have now 

 acquired a very considerable knowledge of the marriage 

 laws and customs of the most savage races of mankind, 

 ancient and modem ; but at present we are almost entirely 

 ignorant of the degree of conjugal fidehty of any of the 

 genera or species of the anthropoid apes and monkeys, and 

 consequently considerable controversy exists as to what 

 systems should be considered primitive and what degenerate. 

 I beheve, for example, that if we knew more of the habits 

 of the apes, we should find that a system of polyandry 

 never occurs amongst them. 



The baboons of TaHsse are usually to be found in the 

 branches of the trees feeding upon leaves and fruits, grubs 

 and insects of various kinds, but when the tide is low 

 they may often be seen walking over the roots of the 

 mangrove trees picking up and munching the moUusks and 

 small crabs they find in the swamps. 



A fairly common mammal in Talisse is the Cusrus 

 celebensis, a slow, awkward, nocturnal, frugivorous animal, 

 rather larger than a cat. It lives entirely an arboreal life, 

 and can only move slowly and awkwardly when placed upon 

 the ground. It usually hangs suspended from the underside 

 of the branches by its four feet and long prehensUe tail. 

 The young are carried on the back of the female with their 



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