94: 
VERTEBRATA. 
round, as in the human species, the nose is flat, and the nostrils situated about half-way between 
the mouth and the eyes, the whole bearing no unapt resemblance to that of a man who has lost 
the greater part of his nose : but in the baboons this organ is prolonged uniformly with the jaws ; 
it even surpasses the lips a little in length, and the nostrils open at the end of it exactly as in the 
dog. 
The different species of this remarkable genus are widely disseminated over Central and Southern 
Africa. In their native haunts, their ordinary food is berries and bulbous roots, but in the vicinity 
of human habitations they make incursions into the cultivated fields and gardens, and destroy a 
still greater quantity of grain and fruits than they carry away with them. In well-inhabited 
countries, where they are likely to meet with resistance, their predatory incursions are usually 
made during the night : and travelers assure us that, taught by experience of the risks to which 
they expose themselves during such expeditions, they place sentinels upon the surrounding trees 
and heights to give timely warning of the approach of danger ; but in Avilder and more solitary 
districts, where the thinness of the population and the want of fire-arms place them on some 
degree of equality with the inhabitants, they make their forays in the open day, and dispute with 
the husbandman the fruits of his labor. 
" I have myself," says Pearce, in his " Life and Adventures in Abyssinia," " seen an assembly of 
baboons drive the keepers from the fields of grain, in spite of their slings and stones, till several 
people went from the village to their assistance ; and even then they only retired slowly, seeing 
that the men had no guns." 
Some travelers assert that if the troop happens to be surprised in the act of pillaging, the 
sentinels pay with their Hves for their neglect of the general safety. Others assure us that the 
troop sometimes form a long chain extending from the vicinity of their ordinary habitation to the 
garden or field which they happen to be engaged in plundering, and that the produce of their 
theft is pitched from hand to hand till it reaches its destination in the mountains. By this means, 
they are enabled to carry off" a much larger booty than if every individual labored for his own 
particular benefit ; but notwithstanding this attention to the general interest, each takes care before 
retii'ing to fill his cheek -pouches with the most choice fruits or grains which he can procure, and 
also, if not likely to be pursued, to carry off" quantities in his hands. After these expeditions, the 
whole troop retire to the mountains to enjoy their booty. They likewise search with avidity for 
the nests of birds, and suck the eggs ; but if there be young, they kill them and destroy the nest ; 
as, notwithstanding the evident approximation of their organization and appetites to carnivorous 
animals, they are never known to touch a living prey in a state of nature, and even in. captivity 
will eat no flesh but what has been thoroughly boiled or roasted. In this state, we have seen 
various baboons enjoy their mutton-bone and pick it with apparent satisfaction ; but it was evi- 
dently an acquired habit, like that of drinking porter and smoking tobacco, which they had been 
taught by the example of their keepers. 
Of all the Quadrumana, the baboons are the most frightfully ugly. Their small eyes deeply 
sunk beneath huge projecting eyebrows, their low contracted forehead, and the very diminutive 
size of their cranium, compared Avith the enormous development of the face and jaws, give them 
a fierce and malicious look, which is still further heightened by their robust and powerful make, 
and by the appearance of the enormous teeth, which they do not fail to display upon the slightest 
provocation. The fierceness and brutality of their character and manners correspond with the 
expression of their physiognomy. These characteristics are most strongly displayed by the males ; 
but it is more especially when, in addition to their ordinary ferocity, they are agitated by the 
passion of love or jealousy, that their natural habitudes carry them to the most furious and brutal 
excess. In captivity, they are thrown into the greatest agitation at the appearance of young 
women. It is a common practice among itinerant showmen to excite the natural jealousy of 
their baboons by caressing or off"ering to kiss the young females who resort to their exhibitions, 
and the sight never fails to excite in these animals a degree of rage bordering upon phrensy. 
The Chacma, or Choak-kama, C. porcarius, is of a uniform dark brown, almost black, mixed 
throughout with a dark-green shade, deepest on the head and along the ridge of the back, and 
paler on the anterior part of the shoulders and on the flanks. The hair over the whole body is 
