No Monkey bones were found; but this is to be explained by noticing what occurs in India. There a dead Monkey is rarer than a dead Donkey in England—so rare, indeed, that the natives believe that their fellow Monkeys bury them; but the fact is there are plenty of beasts of prey ready to devour them, sick or dead, and therefore Monkey bones are very seldom found.
It is probable, then, that the Magot, and many African and some European animals, lived in the south of Spain when the Peninsula was united to North Africa. It has lasted longer than its great fellow-beasts, and still lingers there, but in greatly diminishing numbers.
WRIST-BONES OF THE MAGOT.
What they live upon on the Rock is rather a mystery, for there are no groves of fruit-trees or plantations to be robbed, but only roots and bulbs to be dug up. Perhaps it is this spare diet which restricts their numbers and causes them to be very watchful. It is notorious that they are rarely approached, but sometimes they are trapped, or seduced into mischief, which ends in captivity. All kinds of stories are told at Gibraltar, and by most of those who have resided there, of the acts and deeds of the Rock Monkeys. Once upon a time, a strong party of these Apes, headed by an old male, who had grown grey in audacity and mischief, were always stealing and ruining the belongings of a certain regiment in garrison, and at last the annoyance became so great that it was determined to catch the ringleader, if possible. The men caught him, and shaved his head and face, and then they let him go. Away he scampered to his party, who had been watching for him at a distance, eager, no doubt, to place himself at their head again and lead them to vengeance. He was received with a volley of sticks and stones by his own troops, who treated him so roughly that he had to fly for his life. In this deplorable and degraded state, he was fain to sneak back to his old enemies, the ——th regiment, and presented himself at their quarters, so woe-begone and with such a rueful visage, “all shaven and shorn,” that there was no resisting the appeal. Broderip says: “He was admitted, and remained with his new allies, whom he served with fidelity, upon the principle that secures the faith of other allies—because he couldn’t help it.” It is said in one of the stories of the great siege that the Monkeys saved Gibraltar as the Geese saved Rome, for the Spaniards attempted to surprise the place a few weeks before the regular siege commenced; but, fortunately for the British, the attacking party had to pass where a number of these Magots had collected. Both parties were startled at the noise, but the British were put on their guard, and the old fort was thoroughly ready for the enemy. General Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, never suffered the Apes to be molested or taken; but one had been made prisoner previously to the time of his being made Governor of Gibraltar, and was kept chained in his yard. Another Monkey, who had apparently fallen from a rock, had been picked up by one of the General’s aides-de-camp and conducted to the same place. Nothing could be more striking than the meeting of the pair. It was evidently the recognition of two old friends or relatives. After contemplating each other for a few seconds, they rushed into each other’s arms, then pushed each other a little back, as if to make sure of the recognition, and, after a second mutual examination, again clasped each other to their breasts.
The Magots, like all other Monkeys, are playful, affectionate, and gentle, when young, to those whom they know, but they become cross and vicious with age, and are generally greatly brutalised by their masters—in fact, brought to the same level.
The absence of a tail makes the Magot look very baboonish, and this appearance is not lost when the animal is dissected, and the skull is examined. This is much less animal-looking than that of any one of the Baboons, for it has not so much face, and the front of it is not so disfigured with ridges and swellings. But the forehead is “villainous low,” and there are well-marked ridges over the orbits, the skull not rising behind them; and, as a matter of course, the brain case is flat, the brain itself being low in height. The palate is narrow and long, the face is flat, and the chin recedes. There is a capital set of teeth, and the last grinders of the lower jaw (third molars) have their fifth cusp, or tubercle, subdivided by two side-slits. In this, and in the tail, which is excessively rudimentary, and only has three bones, or vertebræ, the Magot departs from the usual form of the Macaques as a genus. The sutures of the face and skull—that is to say, the joinings between the bones—are soon obliterated in this animal; and it appears to have the nose (nasal) bones joined in one at an early age, thus resembling the Baboon and the carnivorous animals.
So many tricks are taught these clever Magots, and with such ease, that one would expect to find a fairly-developed brain; but an examination of one shows that it is hollowed beneath and narrow in front, whilst it is broad behind, and extending well back, and covering the cerebellum.
Their special muscular structures resemble those of the other Inui, and even their stump of a tail has the muscles which are common to those of all Monkeys, but which in this instance are useless.