AIM-.S, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



23 



flioto by si. S. Rudland &* Soni 



RED HOWLER MONKEY 



The male possesses a most extraordinary 'voice 



just as it is always worth while to watch a great snake 

 011 the move The tail is used as a fifth hand: the 

 Indians of Brazil say they catch fish with it, which is 

 not true. Hut it' you watch a spider monkey moving 

 from tin to ticc, hi-- limbs and tail move like the five 

 fingers of .1 star-fish. Bach of the extremities is as 

 sensitive as a hand, tar longer in proportion than an 

 ordinary man's arm, and apparently able to work in- 

 dependently of joints. The monkey can do so many 

 things at once that no juggler can equal it. It will 

 hold fruit in one hand, pick more with one foot, place 

 food to the mouth with another hand, and walk and 

 swing from branch to branch with the other foot and 

 tad, all simultaneously. These monkeys 'have no 

 visible thumb, though dissection shows that they have 

 a rudimentary one ; but the limbs are so flexible that 

 they can put one arm round behind their heads over 

 on to the opposite shoulder, and brush the fur on their upper arm. The end of the tail seems 

 always " feeling" the air or surroundings, and has hairs, thin and long, at the end, which aid it 

 in knowing when it is near a leaf or branch. It is almost like the tentacle of some sea 

 zoophyte. Gentle creatures, all of them, are these spider monkeys. One of them, of the species 

 called Waita, when kept in captivity, wore the fur off its forehead by rubbing its long gaunt 

 arms continually over its brow whenever it was scolded. The spider monkeys differ only in 

 the degree of spidery slenderness in their limbs. In disposition they are always amiable, and in 

 habits tree climbers and fruit-eaters. 



The Capuchins are, in the writer's opinion, 

 the nicest of all monkeys. Many species are 

 known, but all have the same round merry faces, 

 bright eyes, pretty fur, and long tails. There is 

 always a fair number at the Zoological Gardens. 

 They are merry, but full of fads. One hates chil- 

 dren and loves ladies ; another adores one or two 

 other monkeys, and screams at the rest. All are 

 fond of insects as well as of fruit. A friend of the 

 writer kept one in a large house in Leicestershire. 

 It was not very good-tempered, but most amusing, 

 climbing up the blind-cord first, and catching and 

 eating the flies on the window-panes most dexter- 

 ously, always avoiding the wasps. This monkey 

 was taught to put out a lighted paper (a useful 

 accomplishment) by dashing its hands on to the 

 burning part, or, if the paper were twisted up, by 

 taking the unlighted end and beating the burning 

 part on the ground ; and it was very fond of turning 

 the leaves of any large book. This it did not only 

 by vigorous use of both arms and hands, but by 

 putting its head under too, and "heaving" the 

 leaves over. 



In the private room behind the monkey- 

 house at the Zoo there are always a number of the 



A SPIDER MONKEY 



Thit monkey is specially adapted for arboreal life. The tail 

 acts as a fifth hand 



