558 



SPIDER MONKEYS 



CHAP. 





the most typically arboreal of American monkeys. The use of 

 the prehensile tail can frequently be studied in living examples 

 in the Zoological Society's Gardens. With this " fifth hand " the 

 Monkey feels for a place to grasp, and securely twists its tail 

 round, moving it with the greatest ease from point to point. 

 When the tail is being thus used it is carried erect over the head. 

 The fact that this genus possesses no functional thumb is thought 



FIG. 265. Spider Monkey. A teles aler. x^. 

 % 



to be associated with the extreme perfection of its adaptability to 

 an exclusively arboreal life. The hand without a thumb can 

 act as an equally efficient hook for suspending the body ; and 

 what is useless in nature tends to disappear. These Monkeys 

 have a wide range, extending from Mexico in the north to 

 Uruguay in the south. There are ten species. The flesh of 

 many Monkeys is eaten not only by natives but by Europeans ; 

 but the Spider Monkeys are said to furnish the most sapid food 

 of all. 



The Howling Monkeys, genus Mycetes, have also received the 

 appropriate generic names of Alouatta and Stentor. The former 

 of these two names, indeed, is that which should properly be 

 applied to the genus. But Mycetes is perhaps better known. 

 The " howling " is produced by saccular diverticula of the larynx, 

 larger than those of other American Monkeys, such as Aides, 

 where, however, they are also developed. The hyoid bones, too, 



