Mrs. Loudon's Entertaining Naturalist: Being popular descriptions, tales, and anecdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals.Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
General
Mrs. Loudon's Entertaining Naturalist: Being popular descriptions, tales, and anecdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals.
Loudon, Mrs. (Jane)
Animals -- Juvenile literature; Zoology -- Juvenile literature
The _Cape Baboon_, or _Chacura_ (_Cynocephalus porcarius_), is as big as
a large mastiff, covered with hair of an olive-black colour on the back,
and with paler hair beneath. He has a canine face; the snout resembles
that of a hog, and the nails are flat, but sharp and very strong. It is
said that he follows goats and sheep in order to drink their milk; he
partakes of human dexterity in getting the kernels out of nuts, and
loves to be covered with garments; he stands upright, and imitates with
ease many human actions. The cunning of these animals is well
exemplified in their mode of plunder. They form long lines, extending
from their retreat to the object in view, and then pitch the produce of
their theft from hand to hand till it is secure.
The _Mandrill_ is the largest kind of Baboon, being nearly five feet
high when it stands upright. It is distinguished from other Baboons by
having a large protuberance on either cheek, which is marked with
numerous red, blue, and purple stripes.
“Those which have been observed in a domestic state are generally
remarked to have had a strong taste for fermented and spirituous
liquors. A remarkably fine individual which was long kept at Exeter
Change, and afterwards at the Surrey Zoological Gardens, drank his pot
of porter daily, and evidently enjoyed it; it was a most amusing sight
to see him seated in his little armchair with his quart pot beside him,
and smoking his short pipe with all the gravity and perseverance of a
Dutchman. In a state of nature his great strength and malicious
character render the Mandrill a truly formidable animal. As they
generally march in large bands they prove more than a match for the
other inhabitants of the forest. The inhabitants themselves are afraid
to pass through the woods unless in large companies and well armed.”
[Illustration:
THE PROBOSCIS.
(_Nasalis larvatus._)
THE DIANA MONKEY.
(_Cercopithecus Diana._)
]
THE PROBOSCIS MONKEY is so called from its long projecting and
disproportionate nose; it is an inhabitant of the island of Borneo,
where it lives in troops on trees in the vicinity of its rivers. It is
of a savage disposition. The Diana Monkey is called after the goddess of
that name, from the crescent of white hair which ornaments its brow. It
is very playful, and one of the most graceful of the tribe; it is found
in the hottest parts of Africa. Monkeys are less in stature, and more
numerous, than the apes and baboons. They live almost entirely in trees.
Their natural food is vegetable--fruit of all sorts, corn, and even
grass; but when domesticated, they learn to eat almost anything that is
served on our tables.
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