forests are filled with the animal workl, counuig- tiieir 

 grateful shades, silent and resting ; and it is only in , 

 some deep glade " afraid to glitter in tlie noontide 

 beams/' that the screams of an awakened parrot or 

 the gambols of some frolicsome monkey disturb the 

 universal solitude. The food of this family may be 

 called almost entirely vegetable. The accounts of 

 their love for animal food, and relish for that of 

 human beings, as related by several writers, must be 

 placed amongst those fictions of imagination wliich have 

 too often been mistaken for the records of truth. A taste 

 for saccharine- repasts seems, however, to be their dis- 

 tinguishing characteristic ; 



" Destructive on the upland sugar groves 

 Tlie monkey nation preys ; from rocky lieigl>t?, 

 In silent parties, they descend by night. 

 And, posting watchful sentinels, to warn 

 When hosl'ile stej)s approach ; with gambols, they 

 Pour o'er the cane-grove. Luckless he to whom 

 That grove belongs." 



It is worthy of remark, that apes and monkeys oc- 

 cupy the same line on the two continents, and *'iere 

 live as colonies ; each species in its respective haunt and 

 district of forest, without disturbance or confusion, and 

 without invading the property of one another. The 

 parrots and their mischievous companions jostle each 

 other under the same foliage, as if nature had intended 

 to bring together the only qiiadrupeds which resemble 

 man, and the bird which most readily imitates his voice. 

 As we gaze on the cases before us, fancy seems to whirl 

 us at once to a foreign clime. Who would not wish to 

 contemplate, in the ancient forests of America, tliose 

 troops of animals flitting from branch to branch — now 

 swinging with their prehensile tails, and anon assuming 

 a thousand grotesque attitudes ; and whilst they leap, 

 spring, and mutter, as if they meditated some import- 

 ant enterprise, flocks of parrots and parroquets alight 

 among them, chattering in the branches, and tossing 

 about their heads, which glitter and i<parkle in the rays 



