112 
VEETEBRATA 
GENEEAL EEMAEKS ON THE MONKEY FAMILY. 
^ We have tlins devoted a large space to the Moulccy Family, for although in some respects repul- 
sive, they are still ceaseless objects of interest, as well on accoimt of their own peculiarities as the 
curious manners and customs of difierent nations connected with them. They are also inhabitants 
of the tropical regions of the earth, and hence are associated with the most gorgeous and won- 
derful displays of animal and vegetable life. Thoughtless, playful, given up to an existence in 
which even the cares of life seem a perpetual round of gambols ; in the midst of undying verdure 
and bloom ; gay as the birds, careless as the winds, often variegated in color as the flowers, they 
seem — ^if we leave out the graver species, the apes and baboons — to be the very personitication of 
mirth, frolic, tmd fun. Subsisting, at least in part, upon insects and the eggs of birds, or the birds 
themselves, they in turn furnish a perpetual feast to the prowling leopards, panthers, jaguars, and 
ocelots, and the still more subtle and treacherous boas and anacondas, that lurk in the tropical 
forests, thus supplying a link in the great chain of renovation and destruction, which sums up 
the history of animal life. If mankind are disposed to criticise either their looks or their man- 
■"iiers, by applying standards of personal beauty or rules of moral conduct not made for monkeys, 
we should still not overlook the fact, that in their native haunts they seem as perfectly to fulfill 
their destiny as any other of the works of nature. 
Those who are in the habit of satirizing the monkey creation, shoidd reflect upon the infinite 
pleasure which cliildren in all countries derive from the pranks and gambols of these creatures. 
Mary Howitt, with the cheerful eyes which happily find beauty and pleasure everywhere, seems 
to see this subject in its true light, when she says — 
" Monkey, little merry fellow, ^' Look now at his odd grimaces— 
Thou art Nature's Punchinello ; Saw you e'er such comic faces ? 
Full of fun as Puck could be, Now like learned judge sedate, 
Harlequin might learn of thee. Now with nonsense in his pate. 
