68 



A NEW HISTORY OF 



In the interval, I will take a transient glance at 

 other sections of animated nature. And this will 

 be a preparatory step, as it were, to my fixing 

 every member of the monkey family, in that well 

 defined locality, which their form, their habits, and 

 their appetites, plainly indicate that they should 

 occupy. 



Food, security, and propagation of the species, 

 form the three predominant propensities in the 

 brute creation. There is not a known animal which 

 does not occupy a situation exactly suited to its 

 natural habits. But, in the revolution, or the 

 unfavorableness of seasons, should that situation 

 deny to the individual which frequents it, a proper 

 supply of support, and a sufficient command of 

 safety, then it goes away, in quest of another, 

 more favourable to its wants. 



For example, millions of wild fowl migrate from 

 the northern to the more southern regions of our 

 hemisphere, when " winter comes to rule the varied 

 year, sullen and sad." Their food has failed. 

 Again our magpies, rooks, jays, ringdoves, and 

 pheasants, never fail in autumn, to- frequent the 

 oak trees in quest of acorns. But, when these 

 have disappeared, then, instinct directs the same 

 birds to labour elsewhere on the ground for their 

 daily food ; - and they are seen no more on the 



