Page:General Zoology vol. 1 pt. 2.djvu/320

 armed with very numerous sharp teeth: the ears are thin, naked, blackish, round, and edged with a border of white: the legs are short: the feet armed with sharp claws, but the interior toes or thumbs of the hind feet are flat and rounded, and have nails like those of the Monkey tribe: the tail is blackish at its origin, and covered with longish hair, but from that part to the end is naked, and covered with a scaly skin, the divisions of which are marked in such a manner as to give the tail very much the appearance of a whitish snake: it is strongly prehensile, or possessed of the power of coiling, like those of several Monkies, round any object from which the animal pleases to suspend itself. Its general colour is a dingy yellowish white; the legs blackish; the tail, as before observed, blackish, and furred to some little distance from the base, and from thence to the tip naked: the belly is white; and its lower part, in the female, is furnished with a large cavity or receptable, which can be opened and closed at pleasure: in this are situated the teats; and in it the young, immediately after birth, are either placed by the parent animal, or introduce themselves; for this is one of those particulars in natural history which hitherto seems to have eluded investigation: it is, however, more than probable, that the parent herself places them there; since, even long after their residence in it, they are void of hair, and resemble fœtuses or embryos, strongly adhering to the teats. When they have