64 



PARA 



the immediate vicinity of Para. I met with three species 

 only in the forest near the city ; they are shy animals, 

 and avoid the neighbourhood of towns, where they are 

 subject to much persecution by the inhabitants, who kill 

 them for food. The only kind which I saw frequently 

 was the little Midas ursulus, one of the Marmosets, a 

 family peculiar to tropical America, and differing in many 

 essential points of structure and habits from all other 

 apes. They are small in size, and more like squirrels 

 than true monkeys in their manner of climbing. The 

 nails, except those of the hind thumbs, are long and 

 claw-shaped like those of squirrels, and the thumbs of 

 the fore extremities, or hands, are not opposable to the 

 other fingers. I do not mean to convey that they have 

 a near relationship to squirrels, which belong to the 

 Rodents, an inferior order of mammals ; their resemblance 

 to those animals is merely a superficial one. They have 

 two molar teeth less in each jaw than the Cebidag, the 

 other family of American monkeys ; they agree with 

 them, however, in the sideway position of the nostrils, 

 a character which distinguishes both from all the monkeys 

 of the old world. The body is long and slender, clothed 

 with soft hairs, and the tail, which is nearly twice the 

 length of the trunk, is not prehensile. The hind limbs 

 are much larger in volume than the anterior pair. The 

 Midas ursulus is never seen in large flocks ; three or four 

 is the greatest number observed together. It seems to 

 be less afraid of the neighbourhood of man than any other 

 monkey. I sometimes saw it in the woods which border 

 the suburban streets, and once I espied two individuals 

 in a thicket behind the English consul's house at Nazareth. 

 Its mode of progression along the main boughs of the 

 lofty trees is like that of squirrels ; it does not ascend 

 to the slender branches, or take those wonderful flying 

 leaps which the Cebidae do, whose prehensile tails and 

 flexible hands fit them for such headlong travelling. It 

 confines itself to the larger boughs and trunks of trees, 

 the long nails being of great assistance to the creature, 

 enabling it to cling securely to the bark ; and it is often 

 seen passing rapidly round the perpendicular cylmdrical 

 trunks. It is a quick, restless, timid httle creature, and 

 has a great share of curiosity, for when a person passes 

 by under the trees along which a flock is running, they 

 always stop for a few moments to have a stare at the 



