The natural history of monkeys / [Sir William Jardine].

  • Jardine, William, 1800-1874
Date:
[1845-46]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of monkeys / [Sir William Jardine]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/302 (page 36)
    productive, the offspring was immediately left, and the greatest apathy exhibited. Under every advantage Frederic Cuvier was unsuccessful twice, and found it impossible to preserve the young beyond a few hours.* In geographical distribution, the quadrumanous order presents some curious examples. That part ot them to which this volume is devoted, is found in three divisions of the world, and is enthely confined to the warmer parts. Europe, with one exception, which merely skirts its southern border, and North America, are without them, from the unsuitable natui’e of the climate; and among the various anomalous forms pecu- liar to New Holland, and the vast archipelago of the Southern Ocean, scarcely one approaches to any resem- blance. The smaller formed long-tailed monkeys, (which constitute the numerous family of Guenons i i the systems,) of mild disposition and playful manners and generally clothed with a fur of considerable beauty, are in a general way distributed over Africa and India; among these, however, the genus Semnopithecus of F. Cuvier, seems exclusively Indian, while, with a few exceptions, the Cercopitkeci of the same naturalist, and Cercocebi of Geoffroy, inhabit Afidca. The most typical fonns in the zoology of these countries, are, in the last; the baboons, or Cpnocepkali, more bestial in all their forms and habits, and deviating from the quadrumanous type. In one or two aberrant • The Ouistiti produced three iu confinement, and nursed them ■with great attention.—See our description of that species.