The Piebald Saki 



by Philip Hershkovitz 

 Curator Emeritus of Mammals 



.he piebald saki, one of the rarest of mon- 

 keys, lives in a small remote part of Brazil. The 

 animal, the size of a large house cat, has never 

 been photographed or seen alive outside its coun- 

 try and nothing is known of its habits in the wild. 



The first specimen made known to science 

 was sent from Brazil to the British Museum (Na- 

 tural History) in London about 1850, by Henry 

 Walter Bates (1825-1892), and described as 

 Pithecia albicans in 1860 by John Edward Gray. 



Bates, the English naturalist who conceived 

 the theory of mimicry in animal form and color 

 during his travels in Brazil from 1848 to 1859, 

 first saw the piebald saki alive in Ega (now 

 Tefe), a town on the banks of the upper Amazon 

 River. It was the pet of a friend and neighbor. 

 As told by Bates in The Naturalist on the Amazo- 

 nas (1863, vol 2, p. 314), the parauacu, as the 

 monkey is called by natives, "became so tame in 

 the course of a few weeks that it followed [its 

 master) about the streets like a dog. My friend 

 was a tailor, and the little pet used to spend the 

 greater part of the day seated on his shoulder, 

 whilst he was at work on his board. It showed, 

 nevertheless, great dislike to strangers, and was 

 not on good terms with any other member 

 of my friend's household than himself. I saw 

 no monkey that showed so strong a personal 

 attachment as this gentle, timid, silent little crea- 

 ture It is not wanting, however, in intelli- 

 gence as well as moral goodness, proof of which 

 was furnished one day by an act of our little pet. 



My neighbour had quitted his house in the mor- 

 ning without taking Parauacu with him, and the 

 little creature having missed its friend, and con- 

 cluded, as it seemed, that he would be sure to 

 come to me, both being in the habit of paying 

 me a daily visit together, came straight to my 

 dwelling, taking a short cut over gardens, trees, 

 and thickets, instead of going the roundabout 

 way of the street. It had never done this before, 

 and we knew the route it had taken only from a 

 neighbour having watched its movements. On 

 arriving at my house and not finding its master, 

 it climbed to the top of my table and sat with 

 an air of quiet resignation waiting for him. 

 Shortly afterwards my friend entered, and the 

 gladdened pet then jumped to its usual perch 

 on his shoulders." 



Nothing more has been reported on the 

 habits or nature of the monkey. 



The Bulletin cover illustration was modelled 

 on a museum preserved specimen and photo- 

 graphs of living animals of closely related species 

 of the genus Pithecia. The figure is one of a series 

 being executed by Staff Illustrator Zorica Dabich 

 for the second volume of my Living New World 

 Monkeys (Platyrrhini) . The first volume was pub- 

 lished in 1977 by the University of Chicago Press. 

 The scientific work is supported by a grant from 

 the National Institutes of Health and the illustra- 

 tions, in part, by the Barbara E. Brown Fund for 

 Mammal Research. 



The piebald saki, Pithecia albicans, 

 painted by Zorica Dabich. 



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