or the nails constructed for digging the earth; and in none of them is
the naked callous portion, which corresponds to the sole or the palm,
capable of being applied, like the feet of man or of the bear, to the
flat surfaces on which they may occasionally tread. Even in those which
have the greatest propensity to assume an upright posture, the body
is, under such circumstances, wholly supported by the outer margins of
the posterior hands. The earth, in fact, is not their proper place of
abode; they are essentially inhabitants of trees, and every part of their
organization is admirably fitted for the mode of life to which they were
destined by the hand of nature herself. Throughout the vast forests of
Asia, Africa, and South America, and more especially in those portions
of the three continents which are comprehended within the tropics,
they congregate in numerous troops, bounding rapidly from branch to
branch, and from tree to tree, in search of the fruits and eggs which
constitute their principal means of subsistence. In the course of these
peregrinations, which are frequently executed with a velocity scarcely
to be followed by the eye, they seem to give a momentary, and but a
momentary, attention to every remarkable object that falls in their way,
but never appear to remember it again; for they will examine the same
object with the same rapidity as often as it recurs, and apparently
without in the least recognising it as that which they had seen before.
They pass on a sudden from a state of seeming tranquillity to the most
violent demonstrations of passion and sensuality; and in the course of a
few minutes run through all the various phases of gesture and action of
which they are capable, and for which their peculiar conformation affords
ample scope. The females treat their young with the greatest tenderness
until they become capable of shifting for themselves; when they turn them
loose upon the world, and conduct themselves towards them from that time
forwards in the same manner as towards the most perfect strangers.
The degrees of their so much vaunted intelligence, which is in general
very limited, and rarely capable of being made subservient to the
purposes of man, vary almost as much as the ever-changing outline of
their form. From the grave and reflective Oran-Otang, whose docility and
powers of imitation in his young state have been the theme of so much
ridiculous exaggeration and sophistical argumentation, to the stupid
and savage Baboon, whose gross brutality is scarcely relieved by a
single spark of intelligence, the gradations are regular and easy. A
remarkable circumstance connected with the developement of this faculty,
or perhaps we should rather say, with its gradual extinction, consists
in the fact that it is only in young animals which have not yet attained
their full growth, that it is capable of being brought into play; the
older individuals, even of the most tractable races, entirely losing the
gaiety, and with it the docility, of their youth, and becoming at length
as stupid and as savage as the most barbarous of the tribe.
The Monkeys of the Old and of the New World differ from each other in
several remarkable points, some of which are universally characteristic
of all the species of each, while others, although affording good and
tangible means of discrimination, are but partially applicable. Thus
the nostrils of all the species inhabiting the Old World are anterior
like those of man, and divided only by a narrow septum. In those of the
New World, on the contrary, they are invariably separated by a broad
division, and consequently occupy a position more or less lateral. In
the former again the molar teeth are uniformly five in number, crowned
with obtuse and flattened tubercles; while in the latter they are either
six in number, or in the few anomalous cases in which they are limited
to five, and which are peculiar to a group that ought to occupy an
intermediate station between the Monkeys and the Insect-eating Carnivora,
their crowns are surmounted by sharp and somewhat elevated points. The
tails of all the American Monkeys are of great length, but they differ
more or less from each other in the power of suspending themselves by
means of that organ, a faculty which is nevertheless common to the
greater number of them, and of which those of the Old World are entirely
destitute. On the other hand the American species never exhibit any
traces of the callosities or of the cheek-pouches, which are so common
among the Asiatic and African races.
Each of these grand divisions has been subdivided into several minor
groups or genera; but zoologists have hitherto been by no means unanimous
with respect to the principles on which this subdivision ought to be
effected. The arrangement which appears to be most generally adopted
at the present day is that of M. Cuvier and M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire,
which is essentially founded on the application of an imaginary rule,
first employed by Camper for ascertaining the degree of intelligence,
and consequently of ideal beauty, expressed by the human face in its
various gradations of elevation or debasement, and called by him the
facial angle. Unfortunately, however, the operations of nature in the
animal creation can never be subjected to geometrical laws; nor can her
innumerable phases be expressed with the precision of a mathematical
theorem. This assumed point of comparison varies almost indefinitely,
not merely in different species, but even in the same individual; and
the Oran-Otang himself, who is supposed to approach most nearly to the
human form, offers the most striking illustration of the truth of this
observation; inasmuch as in his young and intellectual state his facial
angle is equal to 65°, while in his aged and debased condition, in which
he has actually been repeatedly described as a different animal under the
name of Pongo, it sinks below 30°; degrading him even beneath the level
of the most savage and stupid of the Baboons.
In the foregoing observations we may perhaps be considered as giving
too much space to the generalities of the subject; an objection to
which we can only answer that nearly the whole of our knowledge of the
Monkey tribes consists in generalities. Of the great number of species,
upwards of one hundred, which are now known and characterized, very
few are distinguished from their immediate fellows by striking and
strongly-marked characters, either physical or moral. The groups too are
connected by such gradual and easy transitions, that although the typical
forms of each, isolated from the mass and placed in contrast with each
other, unquestionably exhibit many broadly distinguishing peculiarities,
yet the entire series offers a chain so nearly complete and unbroken
as scarcely to admit of being treated of in any other way than as one
homogeneous whole.
A no less striking than apposite instance of the close affinity between
the species, and of the difficulty of distinguishing them from each
other, especially in their young state, is furnished by the animals whose
figures stand at the head of the present article. They are all three very
evidently young individuals, and have not yet reached the period when it
would be safe to pronounce with positiveness upon the species, or, were
we to adopt the Cuvierian system in its full extent, upon the genera
even, to which they respectively belong.
The specimen from which the central figure was taken is in all
probability the earlier age of a species of Cercopithecus; but to which
of them it should be referred, or whether it belongs to any hitherto
characterized species, we may not venture to determine until its
characters shall have become more fully developed. The distinctive
marks of this genus, which comprehends the smallest Monkeys of the
Old Continent, consist in a depressed forehead, with a facial angle
of 50°; a flat nose, with the nostrils directed upwards and outwards;
cheek-pouches, generally of large size; callosities behind; and a tail
of considerable length. The individual before us, in addition to these
characters, is remarkable for the reddish brown colour of his upper
parts, which gradually disappears in a lighter hue, mingled with a bluish
tinge beneath; for the elevated and compressed toupet which advances
considerably forwards on his forehead; for the hairs which are thinly
scattered over his livid face; and for the spreading tufts of a somewhat
lighter colour which occupy the sides of his head and face posteriorly.
The animal which occupies the right hand in the cut appears to be the
young of the Macacus cynomolgus, Cuv., the Common Macaque; or rather
perhaps, if the colour of the face is to be regarded as affording a
sufficient specific distinction, of a new species lately described by
M. F. Cuvier under the name of Macacus carbonarius. The Macaques are
characterized by the greater elongation of their muzzles, which reduces
their facial angle to 40° or 45°; by the strong developement of their
superciliary ridges; by the oblique position of their nostrils in the
upper surface of their nose; and by the presence of cheek-pouches and
callosities. The young animal figured is blackish brown above, and, as is
very common among the Monkeys, lighter and of a bluish cast beneath; his
hands and face are nearly black; the hairs which cover his forehead form
a thick tuft advancing forwards; and his face is almost naked.
We have little hesitation in referring the left hand figure to the
Cercopithecus pileatus of M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, the Guenon couronnée
of Buffon, which M. Cuvier suspects, with great appearance of truth, to
be nothing more than a variety of the Macacus Sinicus, the Bonnet Chinois
of the same popular author. It differs from that in fact in little else
than in a shorter muzzle, and in a less regularly radiated and depressed
disposition of the hair of the upper part of the head; characters which
may be fairly regarded as resulting from its immature age. We may also
observe that the Macacus radiatus, Geoff., described in the succeeding
article, does not appear to be by any means clearly distinguished from
the Bonnet Chinois; and that it is highly probable that these three
Monkeys form in reality but a single species.
All these animals, which are at present confined in one cage along with
several young individuals of the common species of Baboon and with the
Bonneted Monkey, exhibit a mixture of playfulness and malice, which
renders them extremely amusing. Their gambols with each other are often
truly laughable.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE BONNETED MONKEY.
_MACACUS RADIATUS._ DESM.
THE PIG-FACED BABOON.
_CYNOCEPHALUS PORCARIUS._ DESM.
The Monkey which occupies the left hand in the present cut forms part
of the same group with the subjects noticed at the end of the preceding
article, from which it is distinguished by the peculiar manner in
which the hair of the upper part of its head diverges, and, as it
were, radiates horizontally, from a central point towards an imaginary
circumference, assuming a form not unlike the object to which it is
usually compared, the round bonnet of a Chinese. Its forehead is also
more flattened, its superciliary crests less developed, and its muzzle
considerably lengthened and laterally compressed. The length of its body
is from twelve to fifteen inches, and its tail when entire measures quite
as much. The forehead, which is strongly wrinkled, is nearly naked, and
the whole of the face is entirely destitute of hair. That of the upper
parts of the body is of a uniform yellowish gray, the under surface
deriving a bluish tinge from the skin, which is but thinly covered. Its
native country is the east of Asia.
The right hand figure represents the Chacma, or Pig-faced Monkey, one
of the true Baboons, whose generic characters will be found in the
succeeding article. The forehead of this species is remarkably depressed,
and the nose much prolonged. Its general colour is dusky, approaching to
black. Its body measures from two to three feet in length; but the tail
is short, and does not reach the ground when the animal stands upon all
fours. It is a native of Africa, and was formerly very troublesome in the
neighbourhood of the Cape.
Both these animals, although lively and tolerably good humoured when
young, become mischievous in their dispositions and disgusting in their
habits as they advance in age. The voice of the latter closely resembles
the bark of a dog.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE BABOON.
_CYNOCEPHALUS PAPIO._ DESM.
In the true Baboons the facial angle of the adult varies from 30° to 35°,
and the superciliary crests are for the most part considerably elevated,
as is also the ridge on the back of the head formed by the attachment
of the temporal muscles, which, as well as the canine teeth, are large
and powerful. The cheeks are furnished with pouches capable of much
distension; and the muzzle terminates in a flattened extremity like that
of the dog, on which the openings of the nostrils are situated. The tail
is generally as long as, and sometimes even longer than, the body; but
in several of the species it is extremely short. The callosities are
frequently of large size and disgustingly conspicuous. This genus is
generally considered as the lowest in organization, and consequently in
capacity and intelligence, of the tribe to which it belongs.
The colour of the common Baboon is reddish brown; his face and hands
are black, and his upper eyelids white. The hair of his cheeks forms a
considerable tuft on each side; and the under surface of his body is
but sparingly covered. In bulk he is equal to a middle sized dog; his
proportions are thickset and inelegant; but he is by no means dull or
inactive. When young, he is gay, playful, and docile; but as he grows
older he becomes untractable, malicious, and ferocious. He is sometimes
even dangerous, his muscular strength and agility, together with the
great power of his teeth and jaws, rendering him a formidable opponent.
On this account it is absolutely necessary to keep him strictly confined.
He is a native of Africa, and more especially of the tropical parts of
its western coast.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE WHITE-HEADED MONGOOS.
_LEMUR ALBIFRONS._ GEOFF.
Belonging to a different tribe of the same grand division with the
true Monkeys, from which they are more readily distinguished by their
general form and habit than by any very remarkable deviation in their
structure or organization, these agile and playful little creatures
form a group which naturally follows in immediate succession. The
technical peculiarities on which their separation from the Monkeys is
founded are usually deduced from their teeth and nails; but other and
more obvious characteristics are afforded by the form of their heads,
of their tails, and of their hinder extremities, and these assist in
confirming a distinction which might otherwise be regarded as arbitrary
and unnecessary. The teeth of the Lemurs are, like those of man and
of the Monkeys of the Old World, thirty-two in number, and consist of
four incisors, two canines, and ten molars in the upper jaw, and of six
incisors, two canines, and eight molars in the lower. Such at least is
the usual statement with respect to their dentition; but M. Geoffroy
maintains, on the other hand, that the number of incisors is equal in
both jaws, and coincides with that of the Monkeys; the two outermost of
the six, which are larger than the rest, being in his opinion the true
canines; while the canines, commonly so called, are in fact only the
first of the series of molars. This conjecture unquestionably derives
considerable strength from the fact that, when the animal closes its
mouth, the supposed canines of the lower jaw pass behind those of the
upper, a position directly contrary to that which they uniformly assume
in every other animal that is furnished with that kind of teeth. On
each of their four hands they have four fingers of moderate length, and
a thumb which is capable of being opposed to them almost equally well
with that of the other Quadrumana; they are consequently enabled to
grasp whatever they seize with the greatest precision. The peculiarity
of their nails consists in the shape of that of the index of the hinder
hands, which forms an elongated, curved, and pointed claw, approaching
in some degree to those of the carnivorous quadrupeds. All the rest
of their nails are broad and flat like those of the Monkeys. Their
posterior extremities are longer than their anterior; and their body and
limbs are light, graceful, and well proportioned. The tail, which is of
uniform thickness throughout, is longer than the body, and, in common
with it, is clothed with long, soft, and woolly hair. The head is long,
triangular, and gradually tapering into a slender and pointed muzzle,
which, in proportionate length, far exceeds that of any of the Monkeys;
the ears are short and rounded; and the whiskers but little developed.
The whole of the genus thus characterized are natives of Madagascar and
of two or three of the smaller islands in its immediate vicinity. They
appear to occupy in that remarkable and very imperfectly known country
the place of the Monkeys, none of which have yet been detected within
its precincts. They are said to live in numerous troops upon the trees,
and to feed upon fruits and insects; but their habits in a state of
nature have not yet been observed with sufficient accuracy to enable
us to form any clear idea of their mode of existence. In captivity
they are particularly tame and good tempered, fond of being noticed,
delighting in motion, and climbing and leaping with surprising agility.
They are, however, in some degree nocturnal; and when undisturbed pass a
considerable portion of the day in sleep. If alone, they roll themselves
up in the form of a ball, and wind their long tail in a very curious
manner round their body, apparently for the purpose of keeping themselves
warm; for they are naturally chilly, and delight in basking in the rays
of the sun, or in creeping as close as possible to the fire. When two of
them are confined together, they interlace their limbs and tails after a
singular fashion, and placing their heads in such a position as that each
may, if disturbed, see what is going on behind the other’s back, fall
comfortably asleep.
The species to which the beautiful pair in the Menagerie belong has all
the habits of its group. It is characterized by the clear fulvous brown
colour of the upper surface of the body and outer side of the limbs,
gradually becoming lighter on the under and inner surfaces, and deepening
in its shade towards the tail, the greater part of which is nearly black.
The muzzle and the hands are bluish black. The male has the whole of the
forehead, the sides of the cheeks, and the under part of the lower lip
covered with a white fur, which in the female is of a blackish gray and
much less developed; her general colour is also of a lighter tinge. This
remarkable difference would lead us to question the specific identity
of the two animals, were we not assured by M. F. Cuvier that he had
verified the fact by what is usually regarded as an unequivocal test.
Mr. M’Leay has, however, thrown considerable doubt upon the accuracy of
the inference thus attempted to be drawn, by exhibiting to the Linnean
Society a female, in whom the white fur of the head was as distinctly
developed as in her male companion. The whole of the species of this
group require, in fact, an accurate revision.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE KANGUROO.
_MACROPUS MAJOR._ SHAW.
The very peculiar structure from which the Marsupial animals derive their
name has been regarded by almost every naturalist who has written on the
subject as so essential a deviation from the common type, that, setting
aside all considerations of form or habits, and regardless even of
those technical characters on which so much reliance is usually placed,
they have for the most part agreed in uniting under the same family
designation every animal in which it occurred. This peculiarity consists
in a folding or doubling of the skin and its appendages beneath the lower
part of the belly in the females, in such a manner as to form an open
pouch or bag, in which the young are contained from a very early period,
in which the process of suckling takes place, and in which, even for some
time after they have acquired sufficient size and strength to leave it,
the little ones continue to take refuge.
But the presence of this one anomalous characteristic is accompanied
by so many striking discrepancies in other parts, that, limited as
this tribe is in number, most of the principal forms of Mammalia find
analogous representations among its groups. Thus the Opossums exhibit
characters in some measure intermediate between the Quadrumana and the
Carnivora, to which latter the Dasyuri, another Marsupial group, closely
resembling the Civets in form and habits, approach very nearly; while
the herbivorous races of the tribe might occupy a station between the
Rodent and Ruminant Orders, with each of which they exhibit various
degrees of relationship. This want of uniformity in the essential parts
of their organization necessarily gives rise to much difficulty in
determining their position in the system. The mode of classification now
most generally followed is perhaps, under all the circumstances, the best
that could at the present moment be adopted; although it must be owned
that the purely herbivorous species arrange themselves with a very ill
grace under a subdivision of the order Carnivora. Placed, however, as
they are at the end of that order, and immediately before the Rodentia,
the regular gradations from the type of the former to that of the latter,
which occur in their different groups, become most distinctly manifest.
With the exception of the Opossums, which are natives of America, the
tribe is peculiar to New Holland and its appendages, and to some of the
islands which form the great chain of connexion between that insular
continent and South-eastern Asia. The former is, however, their head
quarters, and the species which are found beyond its limits are few in
number compared with those which people its territory, and, what is more
remarkable, people it to the exclusion of nearly all the other Mammalia;
the dog alone, the universal concomitant of man, and one or two species
of rats, disputing with them their title to its exclusive possession; for
those paradoxical creatures, the Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, if really
mammiferous, approximate closely in structure to the Marsupial tribe.
The largest of these animals are the Kanguroos, whose generic characters
we shall now proceed to describe. Their teeth are only of two kinds,
the canines being altogether wanting. The incisors are six in the
upper jaw, and two only in the lower; the former short, and arranged
in a curved line, and the latter long, pointed, closely applied to
each other, and directed forwards. The molars are separated from the
incisors by a considerable vacant space, and are five in number on
each side of each jaw. The most remarkable peculiarity in the external
form of these animals consists in the extreme disproportion of their
limbs, the anterior legs being short and weak, while the posterior are
extremely long and muscular. The tail too is excessively thick at its
base, of considerable length, and gradually tapering; and this singular
conformation enables it to act in some measure as a supplemental leg,
when the animal assumes an erect or nearly erect posture, in which
position he is supported as it were on a tripod by the joint action of
these three powerful organs. By means of this combination they will,
when flying from danger, take a succession of leaps of from twenty to
thirty feet in length and six or eight in height; but even in their more
quiet and gradual mode of progression they also make use of their tail
in conjunction with their four extremities. The fore feet are furnished
with five toes, each terminating in a moderately strong and arcuated
claw. The hinder extremities, on the contrary, have only four toes, the
two interior of which are united together so as to form the appearance
of a single one furnished with two short and feeble claws; the third is
long, of great strength, and terminated by a large and powerful claw
having the form of a lengthened hoof; and the fourth, the most external
of the series, is similar in character to the third, but of much smaller
dimensions. The head and anterior part are small and delicate, and appear
quite disproportioned to the robust posterior half of the body; and this
disproportion is equally striking, whether the animal assumes an erect
position or crouches forwards upon all fours. In either case the whole
extent of the soles of the posterior feet, which are of great length, is
applied to the surface of the ground. Although differing from all the
Rodent animals in the number of the cutting teeth of the upper jaw, the
Kanguroo has the deep fissure in the upper lip, with which nearly all
that order are furnished, and of which the hare offers a familiar and
proverbial instance.