Chapter I: Apes, Monkeys, and Lemurs (2)

In the private room behind the monkey-house at the Zoo there are always a number of the rare and delicate monkeys from the New World, which cannot stand the draughts of the outer house, like the Capuchins and spider monkeys. The greater number of these come from tropical America. There, in the mighty forests, so lofty that no man can climb the trees, so dense that there is a kind of upper storey on the interlaced tree-tops, where nearly all the birds and many mammals live without descending to earth, forests in which there is neither summer nor winter, but only the changes from hour to hour of the equatorial day, the exquisite MARMOSETS, whose fur looks like the plumage and whose twittering voices imitate the notes of birds, live and have their being. They are all much alike in shape, except that the LION MARMOSET'S mane is like that of a little lion clad in floss silk; and they all have sharp little claws, and feed on insects. The PINCHÉ MARMOSET from the Guiana forests has a face like a black Indian chief, with white plumes over his head and neck like those worn by a "brave" in full war-paint. Merchants who do business with Brazil very frequently import marmosets and the closely allied tamarins as presents for friends in England; the Brazilians themselves like to have them as pets also; so there is to some extent a trade demand for them.

[_Parson's Green._

PATAS MONKEY.

Found in West Africa. A large and brilliantly coloured species.]

[_Wishaw, N.B._

WANDEROO MONKEY.

The number of monkeys which have leonine manes is large. The manes act as capes to keep the dew and wet from their chests and shoulders.]

Among the most delicate of American monkeys are the OUKARIS, which have somewhat human faces, exquisite soft fur, and are as gentle as most of these forest creatures. They seldom live long in captivity, a few months being as much as they will generally endure, even in Brazil. Perhaps the rarest of all is the white-haired SCARLET-FACED OUKARI. This monkey has long white hair from neck to tail, sandy whiskers, and a bright scarlet face. It lives in a district of partly flooded forest, and is only obtained by the Indians using blow-pipes and arrows dipped in very diluted urari poison. The WHITE-HEADED SAKI is a rare and very pretty little monkey of Brazil; and there are a very large number of other species of this group whose names it would be mere weariness to mention. All these small monkeys are very quick and intelligent, while the rapidity of their movements, their ever-changing expression, and sharp, eager cries heighten the idea of cleverness given by their general appearance. Other little imps of these forests are the SQUIRREL MONKEYS. In the common species the face is like a little furry man's, its arms brilliant yellow (as if dipped in gamboge dye), the cheeks pink, and eyes black. In habits it is a quick-tempered, imperious little creature, carnivorous, and a great devourer of butterflies and beetles.

COMMON SQUIRREL MONKEY.

The squirrel monkeys have soft, bright-coloured fur, and long, hairy tails. They are found from Mexico to Paraguay.]

The most beautiful and entertaining of all monkeys are these New World species. No person clever at interpreting the ways of animals would fail to consider them far more clever and sympathetic than the melancholy anthropoid apes, while for appearance they have no equals. Probably the most attractive monkey in Europe is a South American one now in the London Zoological Gardens. It was first mentioned to Europeans by Baron von Humboldt, who saw it in the cabin of an Indian on the Orinoco. These forest Indians of South America are gentle creatures themselves. Among other amiable qualities, they have a passion for keeping pets. One who worked for a friend of the writer, with others of his tribe, was asked what he would take in payment, which was given in kind. The others chose cloth, axes, etc. This Indian said that he did not care for any of these things. He said he wanted a "poosa." No one knew what he meant. He signed that he wished to go to the house and would show them. Arrived there, he pointed to the cat! "Pussy," to the Arawak Indian, was a "poosa," and that was what he wanted as a month's wages. Humboldt's Indian had something better than a "poosa." It was a monkey, as black as coal, with a round head, long thickly furred tail, and bright vivacious eyes. The explorer called it the LAGOTHRIX, which means Hare-skin Monkey. The fur is not the least like a hare's, but much resembles that of an opossum. The more suitable name is the WOOLLY MONKEY. The one kept at the Gardens is a most friendly and vivacious creature, ready to embrace, play and make friends with any well-dressed person. It dislikes people in working-clothes which are dirty or soiled--a not uncommon aversion of clever animals.

BLACK-EARED MARMOSET.

These are among the prettiest of small tropical monkeys from the New World. They are insect-feeders, and very delicate.]

[_North Finchley._

HUMBOLDT'S WOOLLY MONKEY.

This is the most popular monkey in England. He looks for all the world like a Negro, and has a most beautiful, soft, woolly coat. He is very tame, and loves nothing better than being petted.]

In spite of all the varieties of _temperament_ in the monkey tribe, from the genial little Capuchins to the morose old baboon, they nearly all have one thing in common--that is, the monkey brain. The same curious restlessness, levity, and want of concentration mark them all, except the large anthropoid apes. Some of these have without doubt power of reflection and concentration which the other monkeys do not possess. But in all the rest, though the capacity for understanding exists, the wish to please, as a dog does, and the desire to remember and to retain what it has learnt, seem almost entirely wanting. Egoism, which is a sign of human dementia, is a very leading characteristic of all monkeys. There is no doubt that the baboons might be trained to be useful animals if they always served one master. Le Vaillant and many other travellers have noted this. But they are _too clever_, and at the bottom too ill-tempered ever to be trustworthy, even regarded as "watches," or to help in minor manual labour. Baboons would make an excellent substitute for dogs as used in Belgium for light draught; but no one could ever rely on their behaving themselves when their master's eye was elsewhere.

Taken as a family, the monkeys are a feeble and by no means likeable race. They are "undeveloped" as a class, full of promise, but with no performance.

[_Berlin._

PIG-TAILED MONKEY CATCHING A FLY.

Most of the smaller monkeys, as well as the baboons, are fond of eating insects. Beetles, white ants, and flies are eagerly sought and devoured.]

THE LEMURS.

The South American monkeys, with their squirrel-like forms and fur, are followed by a beautiful and interesting group of creatures, called the LEMURS, with their cousins the Lorises, Maholis, and Pottos. Their resemblance to monkeys is mainly in their hands and feet. These are real and very highly developed hands, with proper thumbs. The second toe on the hind foot nearly always terminates in a long, sharp claw. "Elia," the Indian naturalist, who kept them as pets, noticed that they used this to scratch themselves with. Some of them have the finger-tips expanded into a sensitive disk, full of extra nerves. Lemur means "ghost." Unlike the lively squirrels and monkeys, they do not leave their hiding-places till the tropical darkness has fallen on the forest, when they seek their food, not by descending to the ground, but by ascending to the upper surface of the ocean of trees, and again, at the first approach of dawn, seek refuge from the light in the recesses of some dark and hollow trunk. The RING-TAILED LEMUR is as lively by day as night; but most of the race are so entirely creatures of darkness that the light seems to stupefy them. When wakened, they turn over like sleeping children, with the same inarticulate cries and deep, uneasy sighs. But at night most are astonishingly active; they fly from tree to tree, heard, but invisible; so that the natives of Madagascar doubt whether they are not true _lemures_, the unquiet ghosts of their departed dead.

Though the lemurs are here treated apart from the other animals of Madagascar, it will be obvious that they are a curious and abnormal tribe. This is true of most of the animals of that great island, which has a fauna differing both from that of the adjacent coast of Africa and from that of India or Australia. In the FOSSA, a large representative of the Civets, it possesses a species absolutely unlike any other. The Aye-aye is also an abnormal creature. Nor must it be forgotten that Madagascar was until recently the home of some of the gigantic ground-living birds. But, after all, none of its inhabitants are more remarkable than its hosts of lemurs, some of which are to be met with in almost every coppice in the island. There are also many extinct kinds.

Exquisite fur, soft and beautifully tinted, eyes of extraordinary size and colour (for the pupil shuts up to a mere black line by day, and the rest of the eye shows like a polished stone of rich brown or yellow or marble-grey), are the marks of most of the lemurs. But there are other lemur-like creatures, or "lemuroids," which, though endowed with the same lovely fur, like softest moss, have no tails. The strangest of all are two creatures called the SLENDER LORIS and the SLOW LORIS. The slender loris, which has the ordinary furry coat of the lemurs, and no tail, moves on the branches exactly as does a chameleon. Each hand or foot is slowly raised, brought forward, and set down again. The fingers then as slowly close on the branch till its grasp is secure. It is like a slow-working mechanical toy. Probably this is a habit, now instinctive, gained by ages of cautiously approaching insects. But the result is to give the impression that the creature is almost an automaton.

[_North Finchley._

RING-TAILED LEMUR.

This lemur is often kept as a domestic animal, and allowed to run about the house like a cat.]

A DWARF LEMUR.

These tiny animals take the place of the dormouse in Madagascar.]

Madagascar is the main home of the lemurs, though some of the related animals are also found in Africa and in the East Indies. But the dense forests of the great island are full of these curious nocturnal beasts, of which there are so many varieties presenting very slight differences of form and habit, that naturalists have some difficulty in giving even a complete list of their species. Add to this that nearly all of them are intensely and entirely nocturnal, and the scarcity of data as to their habits is easily accounted for. When seen by us, their faces all lack expression--that is to say, the eyes, which mainly give expression, seem entirely vacant and meaningless. But this is due to their special adaptation to seeing in the dark tropical night. By day the pupil of the eye almost disappears. If only we could also see in the dark, the eyes of the lemur might have as much expression as those of a faithful dog. The change which night makes in their general demeanour is simply miraculous. By day many of them are like hibernating animals, almost incapable of movement. When once the curtain of night has fallen, they are as active as squirrels, and as full of play as a family of kittens. The RING-TAILED LEMUR is often kept as a pet, both in Madagascar and in the Mauritius. It is one of the very few which are diurnal in their habits. When in a hurry it jumps along, standing on its hind feet, like a little kangaroo, but holding its tail upright behind its back. It will follow people upstairs in this way, jumping from step to step, with its front paws outstretched, as if it were addressing an audience. The French call these day lemurs MAKIS. The ring-tailed lemur lives largely among rocks and precipices. Most of these creatures live upon fruit, the shoots and leaves of trees, and other vegetable food. But, like the squirrel, they have no objection to eggs and nestlings, and also kill and eat any small birds and insects. Some of the smaller kinds are almost entirely insect-feeders. The largest kind of lemur belongs to the group known as the INDRIS. The BLACK-AND-WHITE INDRI measures about 2 feet in length. It has only a rudimentary tail, large ears, and a sharp-pointed nose. The amount of white colouring varies much in different individuals. This variation in colouring--a very rare feature among wild mammalia, though one of the first changes shown when animals are domesticated--is also found in the next three species, called SIFAKAS. The DIADEMED SIFAKA, the WOOLLY INDRI, and the BLACK INDRI all belong to this group. The SIFAKAS, as some of these and the allied forms are called, are venerated by the Malagasys, who never kill one intentionally. Mr. Foster observes that "they live in companies of six or eight, and are very gentle and inoffensive animals, wearing a very melancholy expression, and being as a rule morose, inactive, and more silent than the other lemurs. They rarely live long in captivity. In their native state they are most alert in the morning and evening, as during the day they conceal themselves under the foliage of trees. When asleep or in repose, the head is dropped on the chest and buried between the arms, the tail rolled up on itself and disposed between the hind legs. The sifakas live exclusively on vegetable substances, fruits, leaves, and flowers, their diet not being varied, as in the other lemurs, by small birds, eggs, or insects. Their life is almost entirely arboreal, for which the muscles of their hands and feet, as well as the parachute-like folds between their arms and bodies, and their peculiar hooked fingers, are well fitted. The young one is carried by the mother on its back, its hands grasping her armpits tightly."

[_North Finchley._

BLACK LEMUR.

Found on the coast of Madagascar.]

This is not the universal way of carrying the young among lemurs. The CROWNED LEMUR, a beautiful grey-and-white species, often breeds at the Zoo. The female carries its young one partly on its side. The infant clings tightly with arms and tail round the very slender waist of the lemur, and pushes out its sharp little face just above the thigh of the mother. The WOOLLY INDRI has more woolly fur than the others of its tribe, a shorter nose, and a longer tail.

COQUEREL'S LEMUR.

A lemur which strongly objects to being awakened in the daytime.]

[_North Finchley._

RUFFED LEMUR.

Another of the nocturnal lemurs. It lives mainly on fruit and insects.]

THE TRUE LEMURS

Of these there are several species, all confined to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. One of the best known is the RING-TAILED LEMUR, mentioned above. It is called LEMUR CATTA, the Cat Lemur, from being so often kept in domestication. The WEASEL LEMUR, the GREY LEMUR, the MOUSE LEMUR, the GENTLE LEMUR, the SPORTIVE LEMUR, the CROWNED LEMUR, and COQUEREL'S LEMUR, all represent various small, pretty, and interesting varieties of the group. The BLACK-AND-WHITE LEMUR, one of the larger kinds, is capable of domestication. A specimen kept in a London house, where the present writer saw it, was always called "Pussy" by the children. The other small kinds are very like squirrels, mice, weasels, and other creatures, with which they have no connection. It seems as though the curiously limited and primitive fauna of Madagascar tried to make up for its want of variety by mimicking the forms of other animals, and something of the same kind is seen in Australia, where the marsupials take the place of all kinds of ordinary mammals. There are marsupial rats, marsupial wolves, marsupial squirrels, and even marsupial moles. The small squirrel and rat-like lemurs are called CHIROGALES. COQUEREL'S LEMUR is really a chirogale. It is a quaint and by no means amiable little animal, sleeping obstinately all day, and always ready to growl and bite if disturbed. Its colour is brownish grey and cream-colour. A pair of these, rolled up tightly into balls in a box of hay, will absolutely refuse to move, even when handled. They only feed by night.

THE GALAGOS.

[_North Finchley._

GARNETT'S GALAGO.

One of the squirrel-like lemuroids.]

[_North Finchley._

MAHOLI GALAGO

This little animal is a native of East Africa. It has very large eyes, and fur as soft as the chinchilla's.]

An allied group, confined to tropical Africa, is that of the GALAGOS. They are most beautiful little creatures, whose nearest relatives are the Malagasy lemurs. Generally speaking, they have even more exquisite fur than the lemurs. It is almost as soft as floss silk, and so close that the hand sinks into it as into a bed of moss. The colour of the fur is rich and pleasing, generally some shade of brown. The head is small, the nose pointed, and the ears thin, hairless, and capable of being folded up, like the wings of a beetle. But the most beautiful feature of the galagos is their eyes. These are of immense size, compared with the head. The eye is of the richest and most beautiful brown, like a cairngorm stone, but not glassy or clear. Though quite translucent, the eye is marked with minute dividing-lines, like the grain in an agate--a truly exquisite object. When handled or taken in the arms, the little galago clasps the fingers or sleeve tightly, as if it thought it was holding a tree, and shows no disposition to escape. A family of three or four young ones, no larger than mice, with their large-eyed mother attending to them, forms an exquisitely dainty little group. The galagos vary from the size of a squirrel to that of a small cat. The kind most often seen in England is the Maholi GALAGO from East Africa. Another species comes from Senegal, and others from Calabar and the forests of the Gold Coast. GARNETT'S GALAGO, another species, is shown above. They may be regarded as nocturnal tropical lemuroids, analogous to the chirogales of Madagascar. It has been suggested, with great probability, that the intensely drowsy sleep of many of the lemuroid animals corresponds to the hibernation of many northern mammals. Tropical animals often become torpid to avoid the famine caused by the hot season, just as creatures in cold countries hibernate to avoid the hunger which would otherwise come with winter.

THE SLOW LEMURS OR LORISES, AND TARSIERS.

Another group of lemuroids is distinguished from the foregoing by having the second finger of the fore paws either very short or rudimentary. The thumb and great toe are also set very widely apart from the other fingers and toes. A far more striking distinction to the non-scientific eye is their astonishingly deliberate and slow movements. They have no tails, enormous eyes, and very long, slender legs.

The SLOW LORIS is found in Eastern India and the Malay countries, where it is fairly common in the forests. The Bengali natives call it _sharmindi billi_ ("bashful cat"), from its slow, solemn, hesitating movements when in pursuit of insects. Of a slow loris kept by him, Sir William Jones, in the "Asiatic Researches," wrote: "At all times he seemed pleased at being stroked on the head and throat, and he frequently allowed me to touch his extremely sharp teeth. But his temper was always quick, and when he was unseasonably disturbed he expressed a little resentment, by an obscure murmur, like that of a squirrel.... When a grasshopper or any insect alighted within his reach, his eyes, as he fixed them on his prey, glowed with uncommon fire; and having drawn himself back to spring on his prey with greater force, he seized it with both his fore paws, and held it till he had devoured it. He never could have enough grasshoppers, and spent the whole night in prowling for them."

[_North Finchley._

SLENDER LORIS.

This extraordinary creature has the habits of a chameleon when seeking insects for food. The photograph is unique.]

The SLENDER LORIS, an equally curious creature, is only found in Southern India and Ceylon. Its food consists entirely of insects, which it captures by gradual, almost paralysed approach. It has been described as a "furry-coated chameleon." A group of slow lemurs, living in Western Africa, are known as Pottos. They are odd little quadrupeds, in which the "forefinger" never grows to be more than a stump. The tail is also either sharp or rudimentary. They are as slow as the lorises in their movements.

In the Malay islands a distant relative, even more curiously formed, is found in the TARSIER. It has the huge eyes, pointed ears, and beautiful fur of the galagos, but the tail is long, thin, and tufted. The fingers are flattened out into disks, like a tree-frog's. These creatures hop from bough to bough in a frog-like manner in search of insects. They are not so large as a good-sized rat. Our photograph does not give an adequate idea of the size of the eyes.

[_North Finchley._

SLOW LORIS.

Another of the slow-moving loris group. These animals are not shown to the general public at the Zoo, but kept in a specially warmed room.]

THE AYE-AYE.

Last, and most remarkable of all these weird lemuroids, is the AYE-AYE. It is placed in a group by itself, and has teeth like those of the Rodents, a large bushy tail, and most extraordinarily long, slender fingers, which it probably uses for picking caterpillars and grubs out of rotten wood. It is nearly as large as an Arctic fox, but its habits are those of a lemur. In Madagascar it haunts the bamboo forests, feeding on the juice of sugar-cane, grubs, and insects. The fingers of its hands are of different sizes and lengths, though all are abnormally long and slender. The second finger seems to have "wasted," but is said to be of the utmost value to its owner in extracting grubs and insects from the burrows in which they dwell, or the crannies in which they may have taken refuge. Very seldom is this animal seen alive in captivity. Although commonly called Aye-aye in this country, it is doubtful if this is really its native name. The aye-aye was long a puzzle to naturalists, but is now classed as a lemuroid.

TARSIER.

These little animals hop about in the trees like frogs. They are nocturnal, and seldom seen.]

THE living races of animals have thus far been reviewed along the completed list of the first great order--the Primates. Even in that circumscribed group how great is the tendency to depart from the main type, and how wonderful the adaptation to meet the various needs of the creatures' environment! The skeletons, the frames on which these various beings are built up, remain the same in character; but the differences of proportion in the limbs, of the muscles with which they are equipped, and of the weight of the bodies to be moved are astonishing. Compare, for instance, the head of the male Gorilla, with its great ridges of bone, to which are attached the muscles which enable it to devour hard tropical fruits and bite off young saplings and bamboos, with the rounded and delicate head of the Insect-eating Monkeys of South Africa; or set side by side the hand of the Chimpanzee with that of the Aye-aye, with its delicate, slender fingers, like those of a skeleton hand. What could be more diverse than the movements of these creatures, whose structure is nevertheless so much alike? Some of the lemuroids are as active as squirrels, flying lightly from branch to branch; in others, as the Slow Lorises, the power of rapid movement has disappeared, and been replaced by a creeping gait which cannot be accelerated. Already, in a single order, we see the rich diversity of nature, and its steady tendency to make all existing things serviceable by adapting other parts of creation to their use or enjoyment.

HEAD OF AYE-AYE.

The aye-aye lives mainly in the wild sugar-cane groves, and feeds on insects and grubs, as well as on the Juice of the sugar-cane.]

AFRICAN LION AND LIONESS.

These animals are so numerous in the new British Protectorate of East Africa that they are exempted from protection.]

[_Florence._

AFRICAN LION.

This lion is almost in the attitude of those sculptured by Sir Edwin Landseer for the Nelson Monument, but the feet are turned in, and not lying flat.]

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