MARMOSETS. 
r 9 r 
was not steady a moment, but was constantly turning its head round from side to 
side, eyeing every person with the most suspicious and angry look. Its sense of 
hearing appeared to be excessively acute, so that the slightest whisper was sure 
to arouse it. The voice of this little animal was peculiarly sharp and disagreeable, 
consisting of a very quick succession of harsh and shrill sounds (imitated by the 
name ouistiti), so loud, that they might be heard from the remotest part of the 
ship. 
For a considerable time there was no evident change in its habits, as it 
continued to be nearly as wild as when I first got it, and showed none of the 
playfulness and vivacity which characterise most of the monkey tribe. As long 
as the fruit which we had on board lasted, it would eat nothing else; but, when 
these failed, we soon discovered a most agreeable substitute, which it appeared to 
relish above everything. By chance we observed it devouring a large cockroach 
which it had caught running along the deck of the vessel; and from this time 
till nearly the end of the voyage—a space of four or five weeks—it fed almost 
exclusively on these insects, and contributed most effectually to rid the vessel of 
them. It frequently ate a score of the largest kind, which are 2 or 2 b inches 
long, and a very great number of the smaller ones, two or three times in the course 
of the day. It was quite amusing to see it at its meal. When he had got hold of 
one of the large cockroaches, he held it in his fore-paws, and then invariably 
nipped the head off first; he then pulled out the viscera and cast them aside, and 
devoured the rest of the body, rejecting the dry elytra and wings, and also the 
legs of the insect, which are covered with short, stiff bristles. The small cock¬ 
roaches he ate without such fastidious nicety. In addition to these, we gave him 
milk, sugar, raisins, and crumbs of bread. Hitherto the weather was warm, the 
thermometer never being below 65° or 60° Fahr.; but as we reached a more 
northern latitude, and approached England, the change of temperature affected 
the monkey very considerably, and now he would not even touch the cockroaches 
when given to him; the hair, especially that on the tail, fell off; and, at the end 
of the voyage, this organ was almost quite bare and naked. He kept constantly 
in the kennel, rolling himself up in a piece of flannel, which had been put in for 
warmth, except when he could reach a sunny part of the deck, where he might 
bask in the heat. There was a considerable continuance of cold north-easterly 
winds, the thermometer ranging as low as from 42° to 36°, and as the monkey ate 
little or nothing, and was quite inactive, I hardly expected to have kept it alive. 
“ When I got it on shore I kept it for some days in a warm room; it gradually 
recovered its nimbleness, running about the room, and dragging its kennel after 
it. Even then it would not eat any insects, and its food consisted of milk and 
crumbs of bread; it was particularly fond of any sweet preserve, as jelly, and of 
ripe fresh fruits.” 
Mr. Bates, who compares the ouistiti to a kitten, banded with black and 
grey all over the body and tail, and having a fringe of long white hairs around 
the ears, only observed this marmoset in the neighbourhood of Para. On a certain 
occasion he observed one of these animals comfortably seated on the shoulders 
of a mulatto girl, whom he met walking in Para; and, on inquiry, learnt that it 
had been captured in the island of Mara jo, at the mouth of the Amazon. 
