MARMOSETTS
"THE MARMOSET" For all their monkey -like ways, the marmosets are not considered "true monkeys". One difference is the tail, which in the marmoset is not prehinsile. Another is that the marmoset has claws on all of its digits except its great toe, which has a nail. True monkeys have nails on all their toes and fingers. Like most monkeys and near monkeys, the marmosets travel in bands-males, females and children of a family together. The marmosets diet is made up mainly of insects, which it obtains with characteristic quick movements. Marmosets are distributed over the vast regions of the equatorial forests of South America, with diffrent species concentrated in specific areas. Marmosets usually have twin offspring. Some times, however, they have not two but three young; and then it is not unusual for the mother to kill one of them at birth. Although this seems cruel, it is probably instinctive, and in any event a kindness to the two that survive. The survivors, being well nourished, both have a better chance of survival in the forest than any one would have had if all three had lived. At birth the mate assists, receiving each baby as it is born, bathing it with his tongue, and transferring it to his back, where it clings, hidden in his long hair. His services do not end there, either, for he carries the children on his back, sometimes for as many as seven weeks afterwards. It is usual for the young marmoset to begin its independent acquaintance with the world at about three weeks of age, when it climbs down off its fathers back and make short trips into its surroundngs.
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