THE MARMOSETS . 
m 
THE COMMON MARMOSET.* 
These little, gentle, pretty creatures, usually so readily tamed, are made great pets of, and attract 
much attention in all collections of animals, and one kind has been often brought from the tropical 
woods of the Brazils and kept in England, so that its habits during captivity have been watched from 
birth until death in adult age. Many years since F. Cuvier had some of the common Marmosets 
born whilst under his care, and he watched them and their parents well. The young ones 
had their eyes open on coming into the world, and their skins were covered with very smooth hair of a 
deep grey colour, but which was scarcely perceptible on the tail. They instantly crept into their 
mother’s nice warm fur, and clung on with their little hands and feet, and they attracted the intense 
admiration and curiosity of the father and mother, who were in the same cage. There were three little 
ones, and the mother indeed did not know what to do with them. Broderip suggests that what followed 
was because the lady Ouistiti had no experienced female friend to direct her in her first confinement. 
At any rate, the mother seized the first by the head, and proceeded to bite this important part of the 
body off, and, luckily for the other two, whilst she was thus finishing off her offspring, they managed to 
get to her breasts, and to begin to suck. From that moment she bestowed upon them the natural 
attention of a parent, and became all affection. The father was even more affectionate than the mother, 
and assisted most assiduously in the nursing department. The favourite position of the young ones 
was upon the back and bosom of the mother, and when she was tired of nursing she would come up to 
her mate with a shrill cry, which Broderip writes said as plainly as any one could speak, “ Here, do 
take the children ! ” He immediately stretched forth his hands, and placed the little ones on his back, 
or under his body, where they held on whilst he carried them about, and amused them. At last they 
used to get hungry, and whined for their mother, who took them, and after having nursed them 
returned them to their “ papa.” In fact, the father did all the hard work, and the mother merely fed 
them. In this instance this domestic happiness was cut short, for the mother was weakly, no wet-nurse 
was to be had, and the little ones sank and died. In their native state they lead an arboreal life, and 
assemble in groups of six or seven, climbing up the tallest trees, and jumping from bough to bough, 
showing the greatest activity, like and greater than that of Squirrels. So rapidly do they move from 
branch to branch, and from tree to tree, that the eye fails to follow them readily. They are recognised at 
once by their long tuft of whitish hair, which sticks out from the side of the head, and almost hides the 
ears. The size of the whole animal is about that of a small Squirrel, and the tail is very long, bushy, 
and prettily marked with alternate rings of ash-colour and of black fur. The head is small, the eyes are 
gentle looking, and the nose is flat, the face being black. The fur of the body is darkish brown, with 
different shades of colour for each hair, which is dusky at its root, reddish in the middle, and grey at 
the tip. There are very different stories told regarding their intelligence and affection. Some 
naturalists assert that they are incapable of affection towards man, even to the hand that feeds them. 
Swainson says “ it mistrusts all, and treats as indifferently those whom one would think it well knew 
and those who are strangers ; neither does it show much intelligence, although it is attentive, and 
suspicious of everything that is passing. When under the influence of fear it strives to conceal itself, 
uttering a short but piercing cry ; at other times it hisses.” The name Ouistiti has been given to this 
Monkey, and the Portuguese of the Amazon districts called it the Sanglain, whilst Europeans term 
it a Marmoset. 
THE CLOAKED MARMOSET. f 
The word “ humerale ” is to be translated a part of the harness on the shoulders, or a graduate’s 
cloak, according to an old Latin dictionary, and thus far a fit name has been given to a little Monkey 
thus noticed by Mr. Bates in his work on the Amazons : — 
“ I saw in the woods on one occasion a small flock of Monkeys. They belonged to a very pretty 
and rare species, a kind of Marmoset, I think the Hapale humer alifer described by Geoffroy St. 
Hilaire. I did not succeed in obtaining a specimen, but saw a living example afterwards in the 
possession of a shopkeeper, at Santarem. It seems to occur nowhere else except in the dry woods 
Hapale Jacchus. 
f Hapale humeralifer. 
