NATURAL HISTORY. 
121 
ROOM III.] 
The other American Monkeys with prehensile tails ( Mycetina ) have 
a very large tumid cellular Adam’s Apple, (or larynx,) and are called 
howlers, from the continual loud noise they make in the woods, espe¬ 
cially at night. They live on leaves, and are as slow, and more me¬ 
lancholy in appearance than the Spider Monkey, as the genus Mycetes. 
The remainder of the American Monkeys have their tail entirely 
covered with hair. 
Some of these, as the Cebi , have nevertheless the faculty of curling 
their tail, and using it to assist them in climbing. They live on fruits 
and insects, are lively and gregarious, and are playful when young. 
The tail of the other kinds is not curled. Some of these have a 
slender tufted tail, as the Cattithrix, which are diurnal, lively, with a 
moderately sized face and orbits, and the Nyctopitheci, which are noc¬ 
turnal, with a very small face and large orbits, like an owl’s. The 
Pithecice are diurnal, but have a thick hairy tail, which is nearly as long 
as the body, and they are often furnished with a dense beard; the 
Brachyuri only differ from them in having a shorter tail. 
The Tacchi are very like the former, but they have only five grinders 
on each side of each jaw. They are small, lively, and live on insects; 
some have a ringed tail, and a tuft of long hair on the side of the ears; 
others, as the species of Midas , have a uniformly coloured tail and no 
ear-tufts, but are often furnished with an elongated mane. 
The family of Lemurs ( Lemuridoc , Cases — ) are much more 
quadruped-like in their form than the Monkeys; their lower cutting 
teeth are produced and slanting; and the fore fingers of their hinder 
hands are armed with an elevated pointed claw. They eat fruits and 
insects, and are generally covered with a soft woolly fur. They are 
almost confined to Madagascar, only a very few species being found in 
Tropical Africa and Asia. 
Some have an elongated conical head, bluntly tubercular grinders, 
and elongated hind legs, as the Macaco {Lemur) and Propithecus t 
which have long tails, and the Indris, which are nearly tailless. They 
are all peculiar to Madagascar and the Island of Johanna. Others have 
a round head, with a short muzzle, large orbits, and nocturnal eyes, 
as the Loris and Nycticebus , which have elongated limbs, and a very 
short or no tail. The Galago and Cheirogaleus haye an elongated 
woolly tail. The Tarsiers ( Tarsius) differ from the latter in having 
the second and third fingers of the hinder hand furnished with subulate 
claws, instead of the index fingers, as is the case in all the other genera. 
The family of Colugos, or Flying Lemurs, ( Galeopithecidce , Case 
,) are peculiar among the Primates for having the hairy skin of the 
body extended between the body and limbs so as to form a kind of 
parachute. Their fingers and toes are short webbed, and sharply 
clawed; the cutting teeth are pectinately lobed. They are nocturnal 
animals, living on fruits and insects, in the Islands of the Indian Archi¬ 
pelago, suspending themselves by their feet to the branches of trees 
with the back downwards, and thus forming a kind of hammock in 
which they nurse their young. 
The family of Bats, ( Vespertilionidce, Cases 24—28,) like the 
former family, have a thin skin extended between their limbs and the 
body, but they are peculiar for having the fingers of their fore hands 
very much elongated, and united together by the thin membranous 
G 
