Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/347

 Insectivora, and the Bats. All the typical Lemurs, which constitute the great majority of the family, inhabit exclusively the Island of Madagascar.

The Pithecidæ are divisible into three groups, which again are much more distinct from each other than the subordinate groups of Cebidæ. These are the Anthropoid section, to which some zoologists consider man himself belongs, comprising the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee, the Orangs and the Gibbons; the Guenons (which, in their forms, tempers, and habits, resemble the Cebidæ), and lastly, the Baboons, whose extreme forms—the dog-faced species, with nose extending to the tip of the muzzle—seem like a degradation of the monkey type. There is nothing at all resembling the Anthropoid apes and the Baboons existing on the American continent. The Guenons, too, have only a superficial resemblance to American monkeys; for they have all thirty-two teeth, nostrils opening in a downward direction (instead of on the sides, like the Cebidæ and Marmosets), and are, moreover, linked to the Baboons through intermediate forms (Macacus), and the possession of callosities on the breech, and other signs of blood-relationship.

A few more words on the peculiar way in which these groups of monkeys are distributed over the earth's surface. We may consider, in connection with this subject, the great land masses of the warmer parts of the earth to be four in number. 1. Australia, with New Guinea and its neighbouring islands: 2. Madagascar: 3. America: 4. The Continental mass of the Old World, comprising Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Islands of the Malay Archipelago, which latter are connected with