Chapter 16

CHAPTER VI.THE DOG-SHAPED MONKEYS (continued).THE GUENONS.[39]

THEGUENONS—Where they are Found—Early Notices of them—Resemblance to the Colobi and Macaques—Distinctive Peculiarity of the Group—Often seen in Menageries—Their Terror of Snakes—Peculiar Expression of the Face—Beauty of their Skins—Minor Divisions of the Guenons—THEDIANAMONKEY—Origin of the Name—Anecdotes of their Mischief—THEMONAMONKEY—Description of one at Paris—THEWHITE-NOSEDMONKEY—Origin of the Name—THETALAPOIN—Anatomical Peculiarities—THEGREENMONKEY—Found in Senegal in abundance—THERED-BELLIEDMONKEY—THEREDMONKEY—Observed by Bruce—THEMANGABEY—Singularity of its Appearance—Special Structural Peculiarities

THEREare vast numbers of Monkeys living in the African forests which resemble, to a certain extent, those described in the last chapter, but which have such important differences in their construction that they are separated from them, and collected in another genus. They are said only to range in Abyssinia to the Zambesi and from the Gambia to the Congo, but probably all the equatorial parts of the Continent are frequented by them, and they extend far south. They are not found in Madagascar, and, of course, they do not frequent desert places or rocky treeless districts.

Being very numerous, and extremely impudent, as a rule, and full of grimace and mischief, they soon attracted the attention of the ancients, and the beauty of the fur of some made them all the more prized. Hence they were caught, figured, and sent as presents to distant kingdoms. The ancient Egyptians knew of one, which at the present time is found in Nubia, and which is often brought to Europe, being called the Grivet. They engraved it in the catacombs of Ghizeh, whence the figure was described by Denon, and Ehrenberg and De Blainville have drawn it as represented mounted on the long neck of a Camelopard. Many coloured drawings of Egyptian origin also represent a Monkey on all-fours, with a tail curved over its back, and this is probably one of those about to be considered.

They are still calledKeborKepin the East of Africa, and they are doubtless the κῆβος of the Greeks. Aristotle says for certain that the Cebus, as it was translated by the Latins, is an Ape with a tail.

Modern naturalists, having become acquainted with many of these species closely resembling each other in some important particulars, have arranged them all under the term Cercopithecus from κέρκος (a tail), and πίθηκος (an ape). The grimaces and odd gestures of these Monkeys have given to them the name of Guenons, and this term is now used accordingly.

At first sight they resemble the Colobi, inasmuch as they have long bodies, long hind legs, and long tails, but the fore limbs are short in the Guenons, and the tail, which is as long or longer than the body, is stout and not slender. Moreover, they have well-made and exceedingly useful cheek-pouches, besides the callosities behind. The face of the Guenons is long, and rounded, and the eyes are somewhat prominent. On examining the inside of one of these particularly African species the stomach is found to be single, and not to resemble that of the genera last described, and on looking at the lower jaw it will be found that the last crushing teeth on each side have only four points, or cusps, and not five, as in Semnopitheci. The wearing of the first premolar tooth next to the lower dog tooth, and behind it, resembles somewhat that noticed before, and which will be described in treating of the Inui, or Macaques, in the next chapter. The hands and feet are well grown, and the thumbs are long and useful.

So that the distinctive peculiarity, or what is called thediagnosisof the group, or genus Cercopithecus is—Monkeys with long hind and short fore limbs, and with long tails, cheek-pouches, single stomachs, and callosities, there being only four cusps on the last lower molar teeth.

DIANA MONKEY.

Many of the Guenons are often seen in menageries and zoological gardens, or as the more or less unwilling companions of organ-grinders; and their trick of crowding everything into their mouth,and allowing it to distend the cheeks, is sure to be noticed. The quantity of nuts which can be stored away is enough for a good meal; and hence these Monkeys are not only good purveyors for themselves, but great robbers of the riches of cultivators. In the wild state they assemble in troops in the forest, for they are essentially tree dwellers, and make raids on all sides of their favourite home, moving with such rapidity under the shadow of leaves and boughs that they are rarely seen by men. In their own little tract of forest they are very noisy and restless; they chase away in a body all intruding Monkeys, and whilst the more aged spend their time in more or less restless movement, in occasional family jars, and in picking the insects from their young and from each other, the juvenile part of the troop are full of play, mischief, and wanton aggression upon the quietude of their elders. A Snake may appear, and there is a terrible noise made, and a general rush off out of danger, the little ones clinging to the fur of the mother, and being carried off safely in spite of her bounds and jumps from tree to tree. Or a Leopard may make a spring, and not always fruitlessly, and great is the surrounding howling and grimacing at it. The hatred of Snakes is carried into their captivity; and Mr. Darwin having read Brehm’s account of the instinctive fear which his Monkeys had of Serpents, and also of their great curiosity regarding snake-like things and their doings, took a stuffed Snake to the Monkey-house of the Zoological Gardens. The excitement which was produced, he writes, was one of the most curious spectacles ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus were the most alarmed. They darted about their cages, and uttered sharp cries of danger, which were understood by the other Monkeys. A fewyoung Monkeys and an old Anubis Baboon alone took no notice of the Snake. He then placed the stuffed specimen on the ground in one of the larger compartments. After a time all the Monkeys collected round it in a large circle, and staring intently, presented a most ludicrous appearance. They became extremely nervous, so that when a wooden ball with which they were familiar as a plaything was accidentally moved in the straw under which it was partly hidden, they all instantly started away. These monkeys behaved very differently when a fish, a mouse, and some other new objects were placed in the cage; for though at first frightened they soon approached, handled and examined them. He then placed a living Snake in a paper bag, with the mouth closed loosely, in one of the larger compartments. One of the Monkeys immediately approached, cautiously opened the bag a little, peeped in, and instantly dashed away. Then he witnessed what Brehm has described, for Monkey after Monkey with head raised high, and turned on one side, could not resist taking momentary peeps into the upright bag at the dreadful creature lying at the bottom.

It would appear as if Monkeys had some notion of zoological affinities, for those kept by Brehm exhibited a strange though mistaken instinctive dread of innocent Lizards and Frogs.

FACE OF THE DIANA MONKEY.

Birds of prey attack them, and not always with a successful result; and there is a story of a little Guenon being darted at by an Eagle, who swooped down and struck it, but it did not get off, for a rush was made against the bird by several of the active elders, and they not only held it, but nearly plucked off all its feathers, so that when it got away it remembered for ever after the treatment it received. The Guenons are very choleric, and the expression of the face and of the mouth, and the shrill sounds which are emitted when they are angered, would probably be accompanied by extremely bad language were they men; but their rage is soon over, and some mutual tail-pulling and biting are the worst part of it. There is a curious defiant look about the eyes of some, with or without extreme restlessness of them; they seem to be the very embodiment of cunning and sharpness, and this look is really very peculiar to the group. By way of additional force of expression, those which are very fond of fighting with their teeth have the power of drawing back their ears like angry Dogs; and this is done by the action of a muscle which springs from the ear-bone behind the ear, and is attached to it behind. There is just a rudiment of this muscle in man. Usually very good-tempered when young, like all the Quadrumana, they grow cross, savage, and uncertain in temper when old; there are some exceptions to this, but, on the other hand, so savage do some of them become, that breaking or removing their great upper canine teeth appears to be the only way of making them behave at all properly. The loss of these fine weapons of offence has a most humiliating effect on the most insolent and petulant of them. Many are very pretty, and are as elaborately coloured as the Douc, that prince of beautiful Semnopitheci; and this leads to their destruction, for every now and then, besides the native desire to have some fine Monkey skins, European ladies desire Monkey muffs, and many an irascible chatterer out of the woods of Western Africa has its skin paraded by the fashion. Bright red, green, fawn, yellow, and white colours are constantly mixed up with black shades, and every tint of grey is clotted here and there. The hair is longer in some parts than in others, especially about the cheeks and chin; one has a white spot on its nose, another has white moustaches, and a third a white band across the forehead. And these tints, and the disproportion of the long hairs, have served to identify the different kinds.

The Guenons occasionally breed in menageries, and thus opportunities have been afforded ofwatching their treatment of, and method of educating, their little ones. One in Paris had three baby Monkeys, one after the other, and succeeded in rearing one, the others dying. She constantly carried it, holding it close to her, so that its little mouth was always close to the breast; but after a while, as it became stronger, it clung on by itself, holding on fast with its hands to the mother’s fur, and helped itself whenever it thought fit. Then the mother appeared to pay no especial attention to the little one, and jumped and rushed about as if it had not the little burden. The father was anything but paternal, and boldly neglected the education of his child; in fact, he was quite indifferent to the mother as well, and even behaved brutally by seeking to quarrel with her. Once or twice he maltreated her, and pinched the baby, so he was locked up by himself.

This careless treatment doubtless accounts for the rapid independence of the young of the Guenons, who soon retaliate on their fathers and mothers for all the enjoyments they did not have at their hands, by endless teasings and scoldings. But all Monkeys are not thus unpaternal and unnatural, and the Baboon is singularly affectionate. At the time that the Grivet—the above-mentioned Guenon—was seen in one cage outraging all good feeling, two Chacma Baboons were in another, and the difference in their behaviour was most edifying. In the one cage sat the solitary mother and its offspring, the father having been removed for his bad temper and brutal conduct; and in the other were several male Baboons surrounding two Baboon mothers and their two little ones, caressing the mothers with the most pronounced evidence of tenderness of feeling, taking them in their arms and pressing them to their hearts, and embracing them in a manner quite human. They squabbled about who was to have the pleasure of carrying the Baboon babies, and after having passed them from one to the other, returned each one to its own mother.

As these Guenons walk on all-fours and but rarely take on the erect posture, which, moreover, they cannot maintain, their muscles are not exactly the same as in the Troglodytes and Orangs, but they resemble those of the Semnopitheci. The Guenons, like the Macaques and Baboons—those great runners on all-fours—have a special muscle to assist in pulling the shoulder-blade forward, and thus to assist the forward motion of the body. Then, in order to drag the elbow backwards in moving on all-fours, and to assist also in climbing, one of the large muscles of the back sends a slip to the back of the elbow. Climbing is also assisted by an addition to the gluteal or buttock muscles, which is called the scansorius or climbing muscle. And in the foot the front muscle of the leg has two masses; one sends a tendon which goes to the inner and front bone of the ankle, and the other right under the foot to the inner side of the long bone (metatarsal), which supports the toe-thumb.

The result of its action is to turn in the foot with a view to holding on. Finally, the two long muscles which flex or bend down the toe-thumb and the other toes are not separate, but are connected by their tendons. So that there is not great independence of the toe-thumb, but all the toes act more or less simultaneously very readily. But the other muscles of it give it more mobility than in man. Their muscular energy is immense, and their power of using the thumb is very considerable, and they pick out each other’s vermin with well-known ease.

In separating the numerous kinds of Guenons into kinds or species, paying a good amount of attention to their internal as well as external structures, that is to say, to their teeth and skull, as well as to their form, it becomes evident that some large ones form a group which closely resemble the others, but which still have more general likeness to the Monkeys which form the subject of the next chapter—the Macaques. These have been placed in a separate genus, but the necessity for doing so is not apparent, especially when the principles of the true nature of classification have been thoroughly comprehended. So the so-called genus Cercocebus (κέρκος, tail; κῆβας, monkey) is omitted, and the Monkeys included in it by some authors are to be considered as the kinds which link on the Baboons and Macaques to the Guenons. Besides these, some Guenons are stronger and stouter than others, their skins being green, or tinted more or less with that colour, and another is of a bright red colour. So that several sets of the Guenons may be established for the sake of convenience—1. The smaller kinds usually with prominent white markings. 2. One having a green skin and a black nose, and only three points or cusps on its hind lower molars. 3. The larger kinds with decidedly green tints, one being bright red. 4. And the group often called Cercocebus, which resemble the others, but have a fifth cusp on the last lower grinder on each side.

Amongst the first kind the Diana Monkey is very well known, and visitors to the Monkey-house inthe Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park usually pay much attention to this most determined and pretty romp.

This native of Western Africa inhabits the woods of the Guinea Coast, and of the banks of the Congo, and it is found in the island of Fernando Po. It was known to European naturalists before the year 1700, and it has always been prized for its pretty fur and gay temper.

The goddess Diana has been honoured by being associated with this Monkey on account of a crescent-shaped white band of long hair stretching across the forehead (she being goddess of the crescent-shaped moon). It is about eighteen inches long when full grown, and the tail is longer than the body, and the fur is very pretty. The crescent of white hairs has dark edges, and the top of the head is broad and dull grey, spotted with green; the ears are dark and the face also; and the beard and whiskers are white, and the first of these projects like a goat’s. The broad and upper chest is white, and this colour is continued under the arms, which at their termination are black-grey. The middle of the back is a dark red-brown, and the belly is white with orange tints, and these colours are continued down the inside of the thighs. Outside these and the flanks are ash-grey and greenish. As another Monkey from the same region has a white band across the forehead, the Diana has been confounded with it, and hence very different descriptions of the colouring will be obtained by reading different authors, and even F. Cuvier jumbled the Diana and this Diadem Monkey together. Very little is known about them in their wild state, and in captivity they show very adverse dispositions; sometimes they are gay and full of fun, and at others morose and snappish. We once saw one of them in its cage in the Zoological Gardens pull its mate, a small Sykes’ Monkey, from the top to the bottom by a well-directed pull of the tail, and the proceeding reminded one of a very energetic mistress, whose servants were inattentive, tugging at a bell-rope. The puller was chattering and grimacing at his visitors all the time that the pulled was hanging on to everything that came in its way during its forced descent; and when it came to the bottom it scrambled about and rushed up to its little house again as if it were a frequent and unwilling exercise. The Diana also stole its companion’s food, such as a piece of apple, by putting her arms around its neck, and squeezing the morsel against its nose, so that it was obliged to drop it.

Mrs. Bowditch, in describing her voyage home from Western Africa, gives an interesting account of a Diana Monkey which was on board. “We made acquaintance,” she says,“very suddenly, and, to me, disagreeably, for I had not till then conquered the foolish aversion with which these animals always inspired me. It was a dead calm, the wheel was lashed, and all, save myself, below—nothing round us but sea and sky, and I had sheltered myself with a book in a corner protected from the equatorial sun. Suddenly, and without noise, something leaped upon my shoulders, and the tail which encircled my throat convinced me that Mr. Jack was my assailant. My first impulse was to beat him off, in which case I should probably have received some injury; but fortunately I sat perfectly still, and twisting himself round he brought his face opposite to mine and stared at me. I endeavoured to speak kindly to him, upon which he grinned and chattered, seated himself on my knees, and carefully examined my hands. He then tried to pull off my rings, and was proceeding to a bite for this purpose when I gave him some biscuit which happened to lie beside me, and making a bed for him with a handkerchief he settled himself comfortably to sleep, and from that moment we were sworn allies. The amusement afforded to me and others by Jack made him tolerated when his mischievous propensities would otherwise have condemned him to perpetual confinement. He was often banished to an empty hen-coop, but as this made no impression upon him I always tried to prevent it, which he knew so well that when he had done wrong he either hid himself or sought refuge near me. Much more effect was produced by taking him within sight of the Panther, who always seemed most willing to devour him. On these occasions I held him by the tail in front of the cage, but long before I reached it, knowing where he was going, he pretended to be dead—his eyes were closed quite fast, and every limb was as stiff as if there were no life in him. When taken away he would open one eye a little to see whereabouts he might be, but if he caught a glimpse of the cage it was instantly closed, and he became as stiff as before. He clambered into the hammocks, stole the men’s knives, tools, handkerchiefs, and even the nightcaps off their heads, all of which went into the sea. When biscuit was toasting between the bars of the caboose, and the dried herbs boiling in the tin mugs, he would take the former out and carry it away, and take out the latter and trail them along the planks; if he burnt his hands he desisted for a day or two; and he often regaled the Parrots with the biscuit, biting it in small pieces, and feeding them with the utmost gravity. At other times he would knock their cages over, lick up the water thus spilled, eat the lumps of sugar, and pull the birds’ tails: and in this manner he killed a beautiful green Pigeon belonging to the steward, a specimen of which I never saw in any collection. For this he was flogged and imprisoned three days; and half an hour after he was let out I met him scampering round the deck with two blue-faced Monkeys on his back, which he often carried about in this manner. When he thought fit to ride, he would watch behind a cask on the days the Pigs were let loose, dart on to their backs as they passed, dig his nails into them to keep himself on, and the faster they ran and the more they squealed the happier he seemed to be. His most important misdemeanours, however, were performed to the injury of his fellow Monkeys, of whom he was very jealous. The smaller ones were very obsequious to him, and when he called them by a peculiar noise, they came, hanging their heads and looking very submissive, and in one week two were drowned out of sheer malice. I saw him throw the first overboard, and the poor little thing swam after us some time, but the ship was going too fast for even a rope to be effectually thrown out in the hope he would cling to it. During one of the calms we so often met with, the men had been painting the outside of the ship, and leaving their pots and brushes on the deck, went down to dinner. No one was above but myself, the helmsman, and Jack. The latter beckoned and coaxed a black Monkey to him; then seizing him by the neck, took a brushful of white paint, and deliberately covered him with it in every direction. The helmsman and I burst into a laugh, upon which Jack, dropping his victim, flew up the rigging into the maintop, where he stood with his black nose between the bars peeping at what was going on below. The little metamorphosed beast began licking himself, but the steward being summoned, he washed him with turpentine, and no harm was sustained. Many attempts were made to catch the rogue aloft, but he eluded all, and when he was driven down by hunger, he watched his opportunity and sprang from one of the ropes on to my lap, where he knew he should be safe. I fed and interceded for him, so he escaped with only a scolding, which he received with an appearance of shame which in him was rather ludicrous.”

The term Mona means tailed Apes or Monkeys, and it has been especially given to one from Senegal, which has some resemblance to the Diana, and it is mentioned here with a view of illustrating its mental peculiarities. They are more beautiful in colour and more elegant in form than the Diana, and they are sometimes more gentle, sagacious, and sharp than any other kind. F. Cuvier describes one which was a great favourite in the collection at Paris. Upon his arrival he was extremely young, and his gentleness and total want of malice and petulance gained him the free range of the apartment. Age did not alter the excellence of his disposition; and as he increased in age and strength, his address and agility became unparalleled. Yet all his motions were gentle, and his actions circumspect; he was persevering in his wants and wishes, but never violent in the attempt to enforce them. When after much solicitation his requests were refused, he would go off in a gambol, and find entertainment in some new object. He had no idea of property, but took every thing that pleased him, even such articles as had previously caused him punishment, and he committed his thefts with dexterity and silence. He would open locks wherein the key had been left, untie knots, open the links of a chain, and search pockets with so much address that you did not feel his hand there, although conscious of the fact that he was thieving. The examination of pockets was his favourite occupation, doubtless from expecting to find food. He was not very affectionate, but when tranquil, and not engaged, he received caresses with pleasure. When tempted to play he signified his assent by many graceful motions; he would throw himself into all sorts of graceful attitudes, bite gently, press himself against you, and give out a gentle cry. He never made grimaces, but, on the contrary, his countenance was always calm, and frequently serious. He looked a perfect angel of aMonkey in his beautiful fur; his hair was of a brilliant golden green, the back and sides were rich brown, variegated with black, the outer part of the limbs and tail were slate-coloured grey, while the neck, chest, and underneath were pure shining white. He had ears and hands of a flesh-colour, and there was a black band stretched across the forehead, surmounted by a crescent-shaped stripe of grey.

Probably its French education may have had something to do with its politeness and gentleness, for one of these pretty creatures which was kept in the Zoological Gardens was one of the most ill-conditioned savage beasts ever seen—quite a diabolical Monkey. This Monkey does not appear to have the air sac in the neck which is common to the Guenons, as well as to the other Monkeys already noticed.

WHITE-NOSED MONKEY.

The word “petaurista” is the Latin for “one that showeth tricks of activity, from a machine suspended,” according to old dictionaries, so this Monkey with a white nose has its abilities properly designated. Some call it the Vaulting Monkey, but in the Zoological Gardens its wonderful agility is shown by its scampering up the side, over the top, and down the opposite side of its cage in a kind of continuous somersault. Coming down on all-fours with a bang, it does the same thing over and overagain to attract attention, and it seems as if it were moving in the inside of a wheel. The dab of white on the nose distinguishes it, and it comes from that paradise of Monkeys the Guinea Coast and the adjoining districts.

The only one of the second group to be mentioned is

HEAD AND SHOULDERS OF THE TALAPOIN.

This is a rather rare animal, and comes from the west coast of Africa, having been sent to Europe from the Gaboon. It is a pretty little creature (probably the smallest of these Monkeys), and is extremely gentle and intelligent. The skin is green, and the lower part of the body and the under part of the limbs are white. It has large ears, a black nose, and it has a kind of broad “brutus” on the forehead.

There are some very interesting points about this little thing, which, in nearly all its construction, is like the rest of the Cercopitheci, or Guenons, but it has a large brain, a short muzzle, a thick, long partition in its nose, and only three points, or cusps, instead of four, on its last lower hind grinders.

So far as is known, there are no differences between the habits of this little Monkey and the others from the west coast of Africa, and therefore its intelligence and deficiencies are sufficiently incomprehensible; but they exhibit a fact of great importance, of which a hint was given in the conclusion of the description of the Mona Monkey. In the Talapoin, the last lower grinder differs from that of all Monkeys by the absence of an important part of its usual structure, and in the Mona the great air sac, which is in communication with the windpipe in most other Monkeys, is absent. This fact may be stated as follows:—That in animals closely resembling others of their group or genus material deficiencies in construction suddenly appear. Corresponding to these deficiencies are the absence of all or a great part of tail in genera the majority of whose species have a tail, and the inference to be drawn is that, notwithstanding all the members or species of a genus are related by a common ancestry, the descendants of a well-marked stock may exhibit peculiarities of structure which are not produced by alterations in the habits or surroundings of the animals.

Such peculiar structures often relate to a remote ancestor, and it is remarkable that in the case of this Talapoin they give it a very faint resemblance to the American Monkeys.

Some naturalists separate the Talapoin from the genus, and classify it in one of its own under the title Myiopithecus.

The third group of the Guenons is represented by the well-known Monkey called

It has its classical name from two words which mean beauty and hair (κάλλος and θρίξ-τρίχος), and it must not be confounded with the Callitricha of Buffon, which is the same as the Grivet Monkey whose figure was drawn by the Egyptians.

GORILLA. (Seepp. 6–30.)(From the Living Specimen in the Zoological Gardens, London.)❏LARGER IMAGE

GORILLA. (Seepp. 6–30.)(From the Living Specimen in the Zoological Gardens, London.)

❏LARGER IMAGE

The Green Monkeys live in Senegal, and extend as far south as the River Niger, for it was on theborders of that river that Adanson, a French naturalist, noticed their collecting in great troops. The little Monkeys were astonished at his appearance, and as they rushed off into the forest they broke off, either purposely or by accident, little branches from the tops of the trees, whose falling relieved the stillness of the woods. He indulged in some very cruel sport at their expense, for although they had been so silent and noiseless in their gambols, he shot one or two without the others being frightened. But when the greater part were more or less wounded, they began to get under cover from the shot, some to swing behind large branches, some coming to the ground, and the majority jumping from the top of one tree to another. Whilst this little scene (petite manège) was going on, this scientific brute still continued to fire on them, and finally he killed twenty-three in less than half an hour. This he did in the space of about one hundred and thirty feet, and yet not one screamed, although they often assembled together, knitting their brows and grinding their teeth, as if they intended to attack him. Broderip, in noticing this, writes, “I wish they had, with all my heart.”

They have in common with the other Guenons a fondness for particular parts of their forests, and one band will prevent another from entering its favourite haunts and this regard for companionship and locality is even seen when they are in captivity. Restless, irritable, and irascible they are ever at play, and fighting among themselves, but they will turn to expel a stranger.

It is said that this Monkey has obtained an American home, and that it was introduced with slaves into the Island of St. Kitts. Many escaped into the woods, and have increased considerably in number, so as often to pillage the plantations.

We introduce a kind here whose elegance of colour is great, principally to give a good notion of the general aspects of the Guenons, when not on all-fours, and also of the furtive look in the eyes of tamed kinds.

When living at the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent’s Park, this pretty Monkey, with a red chest and belly, and slim tail, was very timid, but it liked to be petted by the keeper, being somewhat distrustful of its more romping companions. It would take food out of his hand, and seemed pleased, and generally played with, his fingers, without attempting to bite. The canine teeth were very moderately grown.

This Monkey inhabits western Africa, and is at once known by the red belly and chest, the white beard and whiskers, and the black band across the forehead. It has, moreover, a yellow crown.

The delicate red ground-colour of this Monkey readily distinguishes it from its more favoured allies. One in the Zoological Gardens is wonderfully human in the expression of its face and beautiful sad-looking large eyes. Its pale lips, eyelids, and cheeks, and the broadish pale forehead, with a slightly ridged nose, add to its appearance of suffering. It has a moustache, a few hairs on its nose, and whiskers, which are very cleanly kept in the proper whisker-line. The hair of the forehead forms a counter-curve, whose peak is just in the centre. Altogether it is a very pretty animal.

Bruce, the African traveller, when in Western Africa, took that trouble which is very rarely done by distinguished travellers in Africa, and observed Monkeys in a state of nature—the Red Monkey in particular. It is strange, considering the omnipresence of the Monkey element, that one may look over volume after volume of African travels, and very rarely meet with a note or word about them; but such is the case. So our obligation to Bruce is great. He says they descended in troops from the tops of the trees to the extremities of the branches, earnestly noticing, and apparently much amused by, the boats, as they passed along the river. They then began to take courage, and pelt the passengers with pieces of wood, this provoking a most unequal combat. When fired upon, they uttered the most frightful cries, and although many fell, the survivors seemed by no means willing to relinquish the contest; on the contrary, they redoubled their efforts. Some flung stones at their adversaries, while others collected something very nasty as a missile; all, in short, displayed a determination of spirit which must at all times render them formidable to opponents of weaker powers than themselves.

The last group of the Guenons are often called the Mangabeys, from a mistaken notion that they come from Madagascar. But there are no Monkeys in that great island, whose forests are peopled by Lemurs instead.

RED-BELLIED MONKEY. (From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.)

The general colour of this Monkey is a reddish-brown, which becomes decidedly red on the top of the head. There is a white band between the eyes, which is continued to each side of the back of the neck. A second kind has grey slaty-brown tints, without the white spot.

MANGABEY.

One thing strikes the observer at once, and that is the very affected way in which the Monkey sits, with its eyelids half closed; and as the upper ones are dead-white, they look almost like doll’s eyelids, and as if they did not belong to it.

FOOT AND HAND OF THE MANGABEY.

They are extremely restless, and are fond of placing themselves in curious attitudes, and so full of antics are they that it has been erroneously imagined that they really have more joints andmuscles than the most agile of their allies. They are fond of carrying their tails reversed, so as to be on a line parallel with the top of the back, and their common expression of disgust is to show their teeth by raising the upper lip. It is always droll, frolicsome, and good-natured. Sir William Jardine mentions a female in Mr. Wombwell’s Menagerie that was most lively, and Broderip says:—“She performed many of the attitudes of the most experienced harlequins, and was remarkably cleanly and careful not to soil her person. When feeding, she seldom put her head to the food or dish, but lifted and conveyed it to her mouth. She was very fond of bread, milk, and vegetables, and of carrots especially.” He gives a figure of her—no easy task, for she was never at rest for one moment, and her celerity was increased when she perceived she was noticed.

The Mangabeys are all African, and are peculiarised by having a fifth cusp, or point, to the last crushing tooth on each side of the lower jaw, as in Semnopithecus. Now, they have no other resemblance to Semnopithecus, and all their structural peculiarities are those of the Guenons. They have, however, the web between the fingers carried as far forward as the first joint, and the hair comes close to the knuckles and the beginning of the short thumb. In the foot the toe-thumb is large, and, as usual, widely separate from the toes, the second and third of which are united by a web, which reaches almost to the last joint near the tips, and the third, fourth, and fifth are united by smaller webs, Evidently the peculiar crushing teeth of the Mangabey are a relic of an ancestral character, and we must look in some lower tribes for a corresponding arrangement, and in this we are assisted by the nature of the face, for the muzzle is rather projecting. In fact, they somewhat, resemble the Macaques, or Inui, which will be considered next.

It is extremely interesting to find in Africa, and in the same parts of it, Monkeys living in the same forests, on the same kind of food, and exposed to the same climate and dangers, differing sowonderfully in their colour and disposition. The difference has been caused by something more than adaptation to ends. Again, it is curious to note the different arrangements of the dental structure in the group amongst animals eating the same food and stowing it away in pouches.[48]

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