20 
condition when received, it became dull and inactive after 
the first few months, but without giving any evidence of 
disease, and finally died about the close of the year. Every 
attempt to domesticate this animal, outside of its native 
range, has, so far, been attended with failure, and it is to be 
regretted that the first effort of the Society in that direction 
has met with no better success. 
The four Howling Monkeys which arrived at the Garden 
from Nicaraugua early in the summer, were specimens of a 
type which the Society has long been desirous of exhibiting. 
The difficulties attending their capture are very great, and 
in this case the natives employed for the purpose were 
obliged to surround a number of them in a grove of small 
trees, and then gradually cut down the timber, thus driving 
the monkeys from tree to tree towards the center. In this 
way a space of several acres was cleared before the animals 
were secured. About a dozen were obtained, and although 
the voyage was made under most faA^orable circumstances, 
but four survived to reach the Garden, and these unfortu- 
nately lived but a short time. It is a rule admitting but 
few exceptions, that animals, which by reason of extreme 
wildness and timidity, are difficult to capture, and conse- 
quently rare and much desired in zoological collections, are 
seldom healthy in confinement. The nervous shock sus- 
tained by them when captured seems to react unfavorably 
on their physical organization, and unfits them to bear the 
degree of hardship which all wild animals undergo, partic- 
ularly in the early stages of captivity. It is this fact, to- 
gether with an utter want of adaptiveness to modifications 
of food and changed conditions, met with in many species, 
which so constantly render disappointing the most pains- 
taking efforts at domestication. 
In August, Mr. F. A. Ober returned from a collecting tour 
in the lesser Antilles, bringing with him a few small animals 
for the garden. Among them was a specimen of the African 
Green Monkey ( Cercopithecus callitrichus), which was procured 
by him in the island of St. Kitts, W. I., where a colony of 
these animals has been established for several centuries. 
