In the time of Desfontaines baboons were so common in the forests of the Atlas, that in the environs of Stora the trees were frequently covered with them. "They feed," says that author, "on pine apples, sweet nuts, Indian figs, melons, water-melons, and the vegetables which they pilfer from the gardens of the Arabs, whatever cares the latter may exercise to keep these ill-doing animals at a distance. While engaged in their thieving operations, two or three mount to the top of the tallest trees and loftiest rocks to keep watch, and when they perceive any person approaching, or hear any noise, they give a cry of alarm; whereupon the whole troop immediately take flight, carrying with them all they have been able to seize." Despite of these predatory habits, the baboons at Gibraltar have been fortunate enough to find powerful protectors in the officers of the British garrison, without whom they would have been destroyed. A prohibition against hunting them exists throughout the territory under British rule. At the Cape of Good Hope, and at other points of Southern Africa, Europeans are far from displaying the same amount of goodwill towards the Cynocephali. It is true that they are formidable enemies to man through their malignity, their strength, and the dangers incurred from their bite. Their mouth is armed, in fact, with canine teeth comparable to those of the most powerful Carnivora. The wounds, therefore, says M. Paul Gervais, which they inflict, either in defence, or, as is more customary with them, in attack, are deep, and consequently very dangerous. These apes are fiercer in disposition than the Macaucos, and inspire so much fear when grown up that one of their species is popularly known by the expressive name of the "Man-Tiger." [Illustration: BABOONS PLUNDERING A GARDEN.] We must not confound the Cynocephali with the Cynopitheci, an intermediate genus between the Apes and the Macaucos, which connects both the former and the latter with the Anthropomorphes. The Cynopitheci have no tail; their face is moderately elongated; their ears are round and rimmed. The type-species of this genus is the Negro Cynopithecus, who is wholly black, and a little smaller than the Baboon. His head is crowned with a kind of head-dress raised to a point on the forehead; and his face surrounded with a fringe of long hair. His habitat is the Celebes, and some other islands situated between Borneo and Mindanaos. He possesses a mild and lively disposition. Quoy and Gaymard, naturalists on board the French exploring-ship _L'Astrolabe_, obtained an individual who was readily tamed, and played in the gayest and best-tempered manner possible with the first person he encountered. [Illustration: THE BLACK CYNOPITHECUS.]