Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1806
Primary Source Reference:
"Walk through the Phil[adelphi]a Museum" (1805-1806), pp. 9-10
Additional Source Text:
"That black slender monkey standg: erect and holdg: an orange which it uses as a third or rather fifth hand, more complely than other monkies that have prehensile tails; this has a hard skin without hairs like the palm of the hand on the under part near the end of the tail, where it bends only one way; It has only 4 fingers on each hand; all other monkies have the thumb, but always shorter in proportion than with us. When in health is prefered the erect posture, and would walk round the State-house garden in that manner, with the children that look [it out?]. In its manners gentle, even affectionate it had very little of that uselessness common to the smaller monkies. In their native country, south America, they enliven the forests. Travellers relate an incredible Story of their linking by their hands & tails, and swinging from tree to tree or crossing Rivers, without informing us of the fate of the last, either as regards the weight they would have to bear or the mode by which they might escape having their brains lashed out in the one case or the danger of drowning in the other."
Notes:
This animal was probably the black-and-white colobus.
Specimen Type:
Living/Live (presumably eventually taxidermied/preserved)
