146 A DESCRIPTION OF 
various mimicries of these animals, and theircapricious feats 
of activity : anecdotes of this kind are too numerous for 
selection ; we shall content ourselves by giving the follow- 
ing affecting account : Captain Stedman, while hunting 
among the woods of Surinam for provisions, says, that he 
shot at two of these animals: but that the destruction of one 
of them was attended with such circumstances, as almost 
ever afterwards deterred him from going a monkey hunting. 
" Seeing me nearly on the bank of the river, in the 
canoe," says he, " the creature made a halt from skipping 
after his companions, and being perched on a branch that 
overhung the water, examined me with the strongest marks 
of curiosity ; while he chattered prodigiously, and kept 
shaking the boughs on which he rested, with incredible 
strength and agility. At this time I laid my piece to my 
shoulder and brought him down from the tree : but may I 
never again be witness to such a scene ! The miserable 
animal was not dead, but mortally wounded. I seized 
him by the tail, and taking him in both my hands, to end 
his torment, swung him round, and hit his head against 
the side of the canoe ; but the poor creature still continued 
to live, and looked at me in the most affecting manner 
that can be conceived. I therefore knew no other means 
of ending his murder than to hold him under water till he 
was drowned : but even in doing this, my heart sickened 
on his account ; for his little dying eyes still continued to 
follow me with seeming reproach, till their light gradually 
forsook them, and the wretched animal expired." 
The monkey generally brings forth one at a time, and 
sometimes two. They are rarely found to breed when 
brought over into Europe; but those that do, exhibit a 
very striking picture of parental affection. The male and 
female are never tired of fondling their young one. They 
instruct it with no little assiduity ; and often severely 
correct it, if stubborn, or disinclined to profit by their 
example. They hand it from one to the other, and when 
