248 
RARE AND BEAUTIFUL MONKEYS. 
Among the hundred inmates of the Monkey Palace 
at the Zoo, more than half the species shown may 
claim a place among the more elegant animal forms ; 
and an acquaintance with the smaller and squirrel- 
like members of the tribe which abound in the forests 
of Central and Southern America, and which, in spite 
of their delicate constitutions, are generally repre- 
sented in greater or less numbers in the Society’s 
collection, shows that in at least three elements of 
beauty, the delicate modelling of the hands, the 
brightness and vivacity of the eye, and in the colour 
of the fur, they hold their own with the prettiest and 
most attractive of the four-footed animals of the four 
continents. The repulsion with which all monkeys 
are now^ commonly regarded, is a curious instance of 
the change of association with animal types. It is 
mainly modern sentiment that has identified the 
monkey with the idea of repulsive ugliness, and if the 
great anthropoid apes, with their disgusting “ affini- 
ties,” had never been discovered, the monkey tribe 
might have retained the place which they held in the 
