THE MANDRILL 



frightful, and it takes but little to excite them to this frenzied condition, when they 

 shake the bars of their cages, and endeavour to rush upon the objects of their 

 aversion. Little wonder that the West Coast natives dread the mandrill more than 

 they do the lion. 



Information is still required as to the habits of the mandrill in a state of 

 nature ; and it does not appear to be known whether these apes associate in large 

 droves, after the manner of the ordinary dog-faced baboons, or whether they go 

 about in pairs. 



Here it may be mentioned that the name mandrill apparently signifies a 

 man-like baboon, although there is little approximating to the human type in either 

 the physiognomy or the general appearance of this hideous creature ; the name 

 drill being an old English word, of which one signification denotes an ape or 

 baboon. By the Germans the mandrill is known as the forest-devil, which is 

 perhaps a more appropriate designation ; while by one of the older English 

 naturalists it was termed the rib-faced ape, in allusion to the fluted, melon-shaped 

 swellings on the sides of the muzzle. 



The drill (M. leucophceus), which is likewise West African, but appears to 

 have a more extensive range in that part of the continent, is a smaller animal than 

 the mandrill, with only small swellings on the face of the old male, which is 

 uniformly black. The bare patches on the rump are, however, bright red ; but the 

 tail, which is carried bent forwards over the rump in a similar manner, is hairy on 

 all sides, instead of having its lower surface bare, as in the mandrill. The limbs, 

 moreover, are longer and more slender than in the mandrill ; and in fact in all 

 these particulars the drill tends to form in some degree a connecting link between 

 the former and more ordinary baboons. 



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