104 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
and allowing it to distend the cheeks, is sure to be noticed. The quantity of nuts which can be stored 
away is enough for a good meal ; and hence these Monkeys are not only good purveyors for themselves, 
but great robbers of the riches of cultivators. In the wild state they assemble in troops in the forest, 
for they are essentially tree dwellers, and make raids on all sides of their favourite home, moving with 
such rapidity under the shadow of leaves and boughs that they are rarely seen by men. In their own 
little tract of forest they are very noisy and restless ; they chase away in a body all intruding Monkeys, 
and whilst the more aged spend their time in more or less restless movement, in occasional family jars, 
THE DIANA MONKEY. 
and in picking the insects from their young and from each other, the juvenile part of the troop are 
full of play, mischief, and wanton aggression upon the quietude of their elders. A Snake may appear, 
and there is a terrible noise made, and a general rush ofi out of danger, the little ones clinging to the 
fur of the mother, and being carried off safely in spite of her bounds and jumps from tree to tree. Oi 
a Leopard may make a spring, and not always fruitlessly, and great is the surrounding howling and 
grimacing at it. The hatred of Snakes is carried into their captivity ; and Mr. Darwin having read 
Brelim’s account of the instinctive fear which his Monkeys had of Serpents, and also of theii gn at 
curiosity regarding snake-like things and their doings, took a stuffed Snake to the -Monkey-house ot tho 
Zoological Gardens. The excitement which was produced, he writes, was one of the most curious 
spectacles ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus were the most alarmed. They darted about 
their cages, and uttered sharp cries of danger, which were understood by the other Monkeys. A few 
