The teeth and claws indicate a carnivorous or insectivorous diet in these Monkeys, and the brain does not deny it, and many anecdotes may be told of their love of something alive. Every one may see the Marmosets at the Zoological Gardens making usually very successful dashes at flies with their fingers, and enjoying their tiny prey; and there is little doubt that the following story is true:--One of them, which was kept by the “Sage Femme” of the Royal Family about a hundred years since, took a great fancy to fish, and made a dash at a Goldfish he saw swimming round and round in its globe. He caught it, and ate it, so the lady observing his fondness for something lively gave him an Eel, and as the little Monkey was not more than eight or nine inches in length without his tail, this lively gift frightened him at first by twisting round his body and neck; but he soon killed it, and enjoyed the treat. THE COMMON MARMOSET.[109] These little, gentle, pretty creatures, usually so readily tamed, are made great pets of, and attract much attention in all collections of animals, and one kind has been often brought from the tropical woods of the Brazils and kept in England, so that its habits during captivity have been watched from birth until death in adult age. Many years since F. Cuvier had some of the common Marmosets born whilst under his care, and he watched them and their parents well. The young ones had their eyes open on coming into the world, and their skins were covered with very smooth hair of a deep grey colour, but which was scarcely perceptible on the tail. They instantly crept into their mother’s nice warm fur, and clung on with their little hands and feet, and they attracted the intense admiration and curiosity of the father and mother, who were in the same cage. There were three little ones, and the mother indeed did not know what to do with them. Broderip suggests that what followed was because the lady Ouistiti had no experienced female friend to direct her in her first confinement. At any rate, the mother seized the first by the head, and proceeded to bite this important part of the body off, and, luckily for the other two, whilst she was thus finishing off her offspring, they managed to get to her breasts, and to begin to suck. From that moment she bestowed upon them the natural attention of a parent, and became all affection. The father was even more affectionate than the mother, and assisted most assiduously in the nursing department. The favourite position of the young ones was upon the back and bosom of the mother, and when she was tired of nursing she would come up to her mate with a shrill cry, which Broderip writes said as plainly as any one could speak, “Here, do take the children!” He immediately stretched forth his hands, and placed the little ones on his back, or under his body, where they held on whilst he carried them about, and amused them. At last they used