The Old World section, with its close and downward-looking nostrils, at
first sight appears very united, but after a little noticing there seem
to be many different groups in it. Firstly, the commonest kinds make
up for the absence of a clinging tail, such as their American cousins
have, by having something which the Transatlantics would be glad of,
namely, cheek pouches--comfortable receptacles for nuts and such
delicacies within the mouth, where food can be kept as in a cupboard,
until it is required, or can be enjoyed in safety. These are the
valuable properties of many of the smaller African tribes. Then they
also have, in the absence of soft clothes and comfortable chairs to sit
upon, fur or hair and a natural hardness or “callosity,” or seat, which
does not wear out, and which is often strangely coloured. Another group
has no cheek pouches, but it possesses the callosities, and these less
favoured creatures come mainly from Asia and the great islands, and
only a few from Africa.
Finally, the most important group of the section consists of the
large Apes, with neither tails, callosities, nor cheek pouches, but
having very man-like features; for instance, the great Troglodytes,
Chimpanzees, and Orangs, the first two from Africa, and the last from
the great Asiatic islands and the mainland.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE CYNOMORPHA--THE BABOON.]
These tribes could be, with more study (especially if the merry company
were broken up by the anatomist taking them one by one and dissecting
them), divided over and over again, and separated into kinds or
species, which would not, however, always tally with the corresponding
arrangement of the naturalist, who would go by the skin and the outside
of the animals.
One thing would be quite clear to every one, and that is that some of
the creatures greatly resemble man at first sight, and that although
this likeness diminishes with study, still there is a group, which
deserves the title of the “man-shaped.” Others form a group which go
usually on all fours, looking like dogs, more or less, and they are
the “dog-shaped,” but they of course retain the more or less man-like
peculiarities which characterise the whole of the Monkeys.
Hence, after all these divisions and differences and resemblances have
been mastered, it would be found that the noisy assemblage could be
arranged as follows:--
1.--CATARHINES.--Old World Monkeys, man-shaped and dog-shaped.
2.--PLATYRHINES.--New World Monkeys.
The first section, the _Catarhines_, may be divided into the
man-shaped, or in the Greek the _Anthropomorpha_, and the dog-shaped,
or the _Cynomorpha_.
Or they may be arranged as those, with: 1, cheek pouches and
callosities, for instance, the Baboons; 2, those with callosities only,
the Monkeys; and 3, those without either, and without a tail, the Apes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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