Copy 2

Animals in menageries / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animals in menageries / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/388 page 9
    LION-TAILED MONKEY. ie) manners and disposition, however, are confessedly so much alike, that one description is applicable to both. They are more docile and less mischievous than the common green monkey ; but like them are constantly in motion, and assuming strange grotesque attitudes. M. F. Cuvier remarks, that, from the wonderful vi- vacity of their motions, an observer would almost imagine that their limbs were stronger, and furnished with more joints, than those of ordinary monkeys. The females, as is generally the case, are more docile and gentle than the males. They have asingular mode of expressing their feelings, by raising their lips, and showing their teeth ; and they exhibit another peculiarity in always carrying their tails completely reversed — that is, in nearly a parallel line with the back. Both these races occur inthe same regions, and appear confined to Tropical Africa. . The colours of the two races generally called by this name, are very similar. In that called by M. Geoffroy the Smoke-coloured Monkey (C. fuliginosus), the pre- valent tint is grey slate-brown, without any spot on the head or neck, while the other has the fur of a vinaceous brown, which becomes red on the crown of the head: there is also a white band between the eyes, which is continued to each side of the back of the neck. In both, however, the upper eyelid is white. To this latter, the original name of Aithiops is more strictly applied. Tue Lion-Tainep Monxkey. Cercocebus Silenus, Jiliger. Simia Silenus, Linn. Occan* derou, Buff. Papio Silenus, Geoff. Lion-tailed Baboon, Pennant. The tufted tail of this animal, by some called a monkey, and by others a baboon, has procured it the trivial name of Lion-tailed ; and perhaps to the same cause, as well as to the malicious character assigned to the species by Buffon, we may attribute its more classic name of Satyrus. The species is mentioned by many of the old travellers; and although not very common in our menageries, it is sometimes brought alive to
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