ATELEUS 35 



Ateles ( !) frontalis Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1831, p. 38. 

 Ateles ( !) albifrons Schinz. Syn. Mamm., I, 1844, p. 63. 



WHITE-HHISKERED SPIDER MONKEY. 



Type locality. "Para, banks of the Orinoco," Brazil. Type in 

 Paris Museum. 



Geogr. Distr. Para; vicinity of Cameta on the banks of the 

 Tocantins, (Sieber) ; banks of the Cupari, a branch of the Tapajos, 

 (Bates) ; Peru, (Tschudi). 



Color. Forehead, crown and whiskers, white, all the rest of the 

 body, limbs, hands, feet and tail jet black ; under parts black ; face 

 black except around the eyes which is flesh color. Ex type in Paris 

 Museum. 



Measurements. Skull: total length, 112; occipito-nasal length, 

 98; zygomatic width, 66; intertemporal width, 50; palatal length, 32; 

 breadth of braincase, 61 ; median length of nasals, 14; length of upper 

 molar series, 25; length of mandible, 70; length of lower molar 

 series, 27. 



The type of this species was procured by the Paris Museum from 

 the "Cabinet de Lisbonne" in 1808. It is not a fully grown animal, and 

 the white on the forehead and whiskers is not very distinct as yet, for 

 black hairs are mixed with it. 



Adult male in Leyden Museum has no white on the crown only 

 on forehead. 



Bates while staying at the site of Joao Aracii on the Rio Tapajos, 

 met with this Monkey. He says, (1. c.) "the most interesting acquisi- 

 tion on the place was a large and handsome monkey. I had not before 

 met with the white-whiskered Coaita, or Spider Monkey, Ateles 

 MARGix.^TUS. I saw a pair one day in the forest moving slowly along 

 the branches of a lofty tree, and shot one of them ; the next day Jose 

 Aracii, brought down another, possibly the companion. The species 

 is of about the same size as the common black kind of which I have 

 given an account in a former chapter. * * * It is never met with 

 in the alluvial plains of the Amazons, nor I believe, on the northern 

 side of the great river valley, except towards the head waters, near 

 the Andes, where Humboldt discovered it on the banks of the 

 Santiago. I thought the meat the best flavored I ever tasted. It 

 resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste. During our stay 

 in this part of the Cupari, we could get scarcely anything but fish to 

 eat, and as this diet ill agreed with me, three successive days reducing 

 me to a state of great weakness, I was obliged to make the most of our 

 Coaita meat. We smoke-dried the joints instead of salting them : 



