Lost in the Jungle; Narrated for Young PeopleDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
General
Lost in the Jungle; Narrated for Young People
Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Africa, West -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Day after day I would meet those birds, and then I would look for the
monkeys, and was sure to see them. No wonder they are called the
monkey-bird. But then I never saw them follow any monkeys but the
oshengui. I wondered why they followed them; I could not imagine the
reason. I never saw them resting on the birds, but I noticed that these
birds were fond of the fruits and berries the oshneguis feed upon. Then
the question arose, Did the birds follow the monkeys, or the monkeys the
birds? I came to the conclusion that the birds followed the monkeys,
whom they could hear telling them, as it were, where they could get food
without searching for it.
I tried to discover where these birds made their nests, but never found
one in the country of the Rembo.
Now let us come to their companions, the monkeys. How small are these
oshenguis! They are the smallest monkeys of that part of Africa. Their
color was of a yellowish tinge; they had long, but not prehensile tails,
for the monkeys with prehensile tails are found in America. It is a
frolicsome and innocent little animal. Strange to say, the common
people, who eat all kinds of monkeys, would not eat that one--why, I
could not tell. His cry is very plaintive and sad, and is not heard far
off, like the cry of other monkeys. As sure as you live, when you meet
them hopping about the branches overhead, you may say that water is not
far off. They always sleep on trees whose branches overhang a
water-course. They all sleep on the same tree. How queer they look, with
their tails hanging down! To see the mother carrying her young, and the
young clinging to the mother, is a sight worth seeing, for these baby
monkeys do not look bigger than rats, and, when quite young, not much
bigger than large mice. Strange to say, though very young monkeys can
not walk, from the very day they are born they seem to be able to cling
with their hands to the breast of their mother; for young monkeys must
help themselves, or they would drop to the ground.
So we may say that the oshengui and the monkey-bird are almost
inseparable friends, and we must let them wander in the great jungle in
search of their food while we look for other birds and animals.
There were also in the forest several varieties of tigercat, the name of
which is very similar to that of the little monkeys, the oshengui, I
have just spoken to you about.
There are several species of these cats, but I am going to speak to you
of the _Genetta Fieldiana_. You will say, "What a queer name!" Not at
all. I have told you that I often remembered him in Africa, and I named
this animal after my friend, Mr. Cyrus W. Field. I described this animal
in the proceedings of the Boston Natural History Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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