25 8 
THE LARGER MONKEYS 
strange and interesting, and a good deal that is 
repulsive in monkey characteristics. Though the 
cages seemed first to contain a chance medley of all 
sorts, the monkeys are really distributed with due 
regard to affinities of continent and species ; and a 
“ synoptic ” view of the various tribes behind the bars 
shows better than any book the manner in which 
certain monkey types, like particular races of mankind, 
have either advanced or receded over great tracts of 
continent. 
The sole European monkey has retreated literally 
to the last stone of the continent, and only lives on 
the great cliff of the Rock of Gibraltar, in the 
vertical face of which it still maintains itself, midway 
between sea and sky. On the cliffs of the opposite 
coast they are more plentiful, and its name of 
“ Barbary Ape ” is more appropriate than any 
European title. That at the Zoo is a female, a large, 
heavy, round-backed monkey, with olive-tinted fur, a 
dull, morose face, and a by no means pleasant temper. 
Like most large monkeys, it is a far heavier, stronger, 
and more active creature than it appears to be when 
sitting bunched up on the floor. The big monkeys, 
not only the baboons, but creatures like the large 
macaques and the Chinese and Japanese monkeys, 
have the power of leaping suddenly in almost any 
direction without any previous contraction of the 
limbs or body. They may be sitting in the most 
listless and apparently dejected attitude, and yet in a 
moment fling themselves upon an enemy, inflict a 
