THIS monkey, ([fig. 211.]) though small, is a beautiful animal. Its name seems to indicate that it is a native of Siam, and other eastern provinces of Asia; but though we cannot positively assert this, it is, however, certain that it belongs to the Old Continent, and is not found any where in the New, because it has pouches on each side of its cheeks, and callosities on its posteriors, which characters neither belong to the sagoins nor sapajous, which are the only animals of the New World that can be compared to the monkeys.
What inclines me to think, independently of its name, that this monkey is more common in the East-Indies than in Africa, is, the travellers affirming that most of the apes in this part of Asia have their hair of a brownish green colour. “The monkeys of Guzarat, they say, are of a greenish brown, with long white beards and eyebrows. These animals, which the Banians suffer to multiply in great numbers, from a religious principle, are so familiar that they enter the houses in such numbers that the fruiterers and confectioners have no little difficulty to preserve their merchandize.”
Edwards has given a figure and description of a monkey by the name of the middle-sized black ape, which seems to approach nearer to the talapoin than any of the rest. We have made a comparison between the two, and, excepting the size and colour, they have such a resemblance to each other, that there is at least a very great approximation between them, if they are not varieties of the same species. In this case, as we are not certain that our talapoin is a native of the East-Indies, and as that spoken of by Mr. Edwards is described by him as an animal belonging to Guinea, we shall refer our talapoin to the same climate, or at least suppose that this species is common in the southern parts both of Africa and Asia. It is also probable, that this is the same as the species of black monkeys mentioned by Bosman under the name of baurdmannetjes, the skin of which, he informs us, makes a good fur.
THE Douc ([fig. 212.]) is the last among that class of animals which we have called Apes, Baboons, and Monkeys. This animal, without belonging to any one of these three precisely, yet partakes of them all. Of the monkeys by the length of his tail; of the baboons by his size; and of the ape by the flatness of his face. By a very particular character he seems to form the shade between the monkey and the sapajous. These two tribes differ from the monkeys, having naked posteriors, and all the sapajous having them covered with hair; and the douc is the only monkey which has hair on the posteriors like the sapajous. He resembles them also in the flatness of the muzzle; but he is infinitely nearer to the monkey than the sapajous, from his long tail, and other very essential characters. Besides, the interval which separates these two families is immense, for the douc, and all the monkeys, are natives of the Old Continent, whereas the sapajous are only found in the New. We might also remark, that as the douc has a long tail like the monkeys, but no callosities on his posteriors, he forms the link which connects the orang-outang and the monkeys, as the gibbon does in another respect, having no tail, like the orang-outangs, but only callosities on the posteriors. Independently of these general relations, the douc has particular characters which render him very remarkable, and distinguish him from the apes, baboons, monkeys, or sapajous, at first sight. His skin, which is variegated with different colours, seems to indicate the ambiguity of his nature, and distinguishes his species in a very evident manner. He has a purple collar about his neck, a white beard, his lips are brown, and he has a black ring round his eyes; his face and ears are red, the top of his head and body grey, and the breast and belly yellow. His legs are white downwards and black upwards. His tail is white, with a large spot of the same colour on his loins; and his feet are black, intermixed with shades of different colours.