CEBIDjE 



711 



Fmnihi Ckuiu.. 



Dentition: i H, c J, y :;, /// ;'; ; total 3G. Tail frequently 

 prehensile : digits with nails ; other characters as in the Hajpalidce. 



The members of this American family are at once distinguished 

 by the dental formula, which is numerically higher than in any 

 other Apes. The various species range over the whole of tropical 

 America, but are most abundant in the dense forest regions 

 of Brazil, where they live a completely arboreal life, to which the 

 prehensile tails of many of them are so specially adapted. They 

 are in most respects closely 

 allied to the Hapalidce, but 

 the pollex diverges some- 

 what from the plane of the 

 other digits ; while the re- 

 tention of the third molar 

 is a very distinctive feature. 

 None of the species attain 

 the dimensions of the larger 

 Cercopithecidce of the Old 

 World. The genera are 

 usually arranged in five 

 sul (families. 



Subfamily Myeetinae. — 

 Lower incisors vertical ; 

 hyoid bones enormously 

 inflated ; tail long and pre- 

 hensile, naked beneath at 

 the end ; pollex well de- 

 veloped. 



Mycetes. 1 — The sole re- 

 presentatives of this sub- 

 family are the well-known 

 Howling Monkeys, all of 

 which are included in the 

 genus Mycetes. They are 

 of more bulky build, and 

 have more produced muzzles 

 than the other members of the family. The truncated occipital 

 region, and the extraordinary development of the rami of the 

 mandible, especially of their angular and ascending portions, are 

 the chief peculiarities by which the skulls (Fig. 338) of the 

 members of this genus are characterised. The last named char- 

 acter, which is more marked in the male than in the female sex, 



1 Illiger, Frodromus Syst. Mamm. <> Avium, p. 70 (1811). 



Pig. 338.— Side view of skull and hyoid bone of the 

 Red Howling Monkey (Mycetw senicvlus). From De 

 Blainville. 



