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SPIDER-MONKEYS AND HOWLERS.

walk in this position better than any of the other long-tailed Monkeys, they are sometimes turned to account. Acosta, in his "History of the West Indies," mentions a curious case of the sort in one of these Monkeys which belonged to the Governor of Carthagena. The Monkey in question was the Quata (Ateles paniscus), and it had been so thoroughly domesticated that it was regularly sent to the tavern for wine, the pot being put into one hand and the money in the other; and so well up to his business was the Monkey, that the people at the tavern could never get the money out of his hand until they had given him his potful of wine. Nor was this the only piece of sagacity he displayed on these errands. The children would sometimes

throw stones at him on his way home, when, says Acosta, "he would set his pot down and cast stones against the children, till he had assured his way, when he would return to carry home his pot." But what is still more to his credit," although he was a good bibber of wine," he would never touch what he carried till leave was given him.

Next to the Spider Monkeys come the Howlers, whose contributions to the nocturnal concerts of the American woods we have noticed. These animals are distinguished by the robustness of their build, the possession of a thumb, though not opposable, on the fore-hand, and by a peculiar conformation and enlargement of the bone of the tongue, which enables them to utter those loud and discordant howlings whence they derive their popular name. These peculiar and, to the uninitiated traveller, appalling cries, are not merely uttered at daybreak and evening and throughout the night, but when a thunderstorm is approaching, or any considerable changes are taking place in the electrical condition of the atmosphere; even at midday they may be heard resounding through the woods. It is during the darkness of night, however, that these dismal howlings strike with such terror on the ear of the traveller, as they are then raised with an extraordinary volume and intonation, so that, as Mr. Waterton remarks, "one would suppose that half the wild beasts of the forest were collecting for the work of carnage." The animals themselves are gloomy and morose, and by no means active in their general movements. They are prehensile-tailed, like the preceding group, and when shot among the trees, often remain suspended long after they are dead. The Howlers being more fleshy than the

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CHURLS OF THE TRIBE.

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other Monkeys, are great favourites with the Indians as an article of food; but they have so much the appearance of diminutive members of the human family, that Europeans for the most part decline to touch the dainty fare.

The Howlers are the largest of the American Monkeys, and in some districts they are also the most numerous. On the borders of the Apure, Humboldt frequently counted as many as forty on one tree, and in some parts of the country he says that as many as two thousand may be found in a square mile.

We now turn to the Baboons, the most sullen, ferocious, and unloveable of all the Monkey tribe. Though belonging properly to Africa, one species extends its range eastward to Arabia, and another northward to the Rock of Gibraltar; this latter being the only member of the Monkey tribe indigenous to Europe.

All the Baboons are robust and powerful creatures, and in their form and aspect make an approach to the carniverous animals; their generic name, Cynocephalus, or Dog-headed, indicating their resemblance to the canine family. They are mostly found in rugged mountainous districts, where they climb about among the rocks and precipices with great facility, and procure their miscellaneous fare of berries, bulbous roots, eggs, insects, and scorpions; which latter they find in great abundance amongst the loose stones, and, first dexterously nipping off the sting, swallow alive. That modern Nimrod, Captain Gordon Cumming, relates, that, during his wanderings in South Africa, he once entered a rugged mountainous region, where he found whole colonies of Black-faced Baboons, which, astonished to behold such novel intruders upon their domain as himself and his party, leisurely descended the craggy mountain sides to have a nearer inspection of them. Having thus satisfied their curiosity, the captain says they seated themselves together upon a broad ledge, and "seemed to hold a council as to the propriety of permitting us to proceed further through their territories." What further happened we are not told. The great hunter is evidently as chary of his sentences as of his powder over such mean game; he will spend them on nothing less than elephants and hippopotami, and "man-eater" lions.

The huge Mandrill (Cynocephalus mormon), or ribbed-nose Baboon, the largest and most ferocious of its race, is a native of the western coast of Africa, where it associates in large troops,

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which occasionally make incursions into the villages and cultivated fields, and plunder them with impunity. The male is readily distinguished by its enormously swollen and protuberant cheek-bones, which are marked obliquely with deep furrows, and bright and variegated colours. Some years ago there was a very fine specimen of this Baboon in the travelling menagerie of the late Mr. Wombwell; and on one occasion we remember to have seen it break out into a sudden and ungovernable tempest of passion, foaming and quivering with rage, for no other reason than that one of the keepers made a feint of throwing his arms around a young woman who was standing before its cage. Such exhibitions are characteristic of this animal, and more or less so of all the Baboons.

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Passing by the Gibraltar Baboon, from time immemorial the "ape" of the showman, the Drill, and the Derrias, the Baboon of the ancients, we must say a word or two about the Chacma (Cynocephalus porcarius), the Blackfaced Baboon of the Cape. These animals are well known to the farmers of South Africa, from the depredations they commit on the cultivated districts, and are not unfrequently tracked home to their mountain retreats by the exasperated boors. When the Chacma is surprised in this manner, the cry of alarm is raised, and the whole troop betake themselves to the rocky cliffs, which, though often several hundred feet in perpendicular height, they scale with surprising agility, the young ones clinging to their mothers, and the old males bringing up the rear. The old male Chacma is an animal of enormous strength, and is not to be meddled with with impunity by either dogs or men. In captivity, it is good-tempered and frolicsome while young, but as age advances it becomes savage and dangerous. It is of one of these Baboons that Le Vaillant has given so amusing an account in his African travels. Kees was a young animal, and was still graced, therefore, with the juvenile amiability of his race. He was a universal favourite, but thoroughly deep and wily, and moreover shockingly addicted to pilfering. Food mysteriously disappeared when meals were being prepared, and of course Kees was either not to be found, or else stood by with elevated eyebrows, wondering with the rest where the missing provender could have gone. He had gained a perfect ascendancy over his master's dogs, and, with the exception of one of them, whose cunning was more than a match

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