Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/34

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24.
QUADRUMANA.—SIMIADÆ


manifest much gentleness, affection, and docility. The fur is longer and more copious than in the preceding genera; it is usually of a black colour, in some varied, however, by grey, yellow, or white. There are eight or nine known species; several of which are marked by the peculiarity of having the index and second toe of the feet united.

Genus Semvopirustcus. (F. Cuv.)

The presence of cheek-pouches, and of tails, and a decreased power of standing with ease on the hind hands, constitute so obvious a degeneration from that approach to Man, which we have noticed in the Apes, that the Monkeys, which we now come to describe have been recognised even by the vulgar as a well marked division of animals. In the genus before us, however, there is retained much affinity to the Gibbons; particularly in their slender contour, their small, round heads, and depressed faces, their large throat-sacs, their lengthened limbs, their small callosities, and the absence (in most of the species), of cheek-pouches. The stomach has the remarkable character of being three-fold, one of the divisions being puckered into a number of distinct sacs ; and there are peculiarities in the teeth, that remind one of the teeth of a ruminant. It is curious also, that in the stomachs of this genus of Monkeys are found concretions resembling the bezoars of ruminating animals.

Many species of this genus attain considerable size; they are generally distinguished for the length, softness, and gloss of their fur, and some for the richness of their tints. The eyebrows,