318 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
A lot has been done for the Colony in the way of providing 
up-to-date hospitals and schools, in blotting out malaria, and in 
generally raising the standard of living, but there seems to be little 
appreciation of the fact that this has been accomplished mainly 
at the expense of the mother country. 
My main task in British Guiana was to collect as great a variety 
of mammals as possible. Some of these I have described in a pre- 
vious chapter, so my remarks will be confined mainly to new 
acquisitions. 
The first week or so I spent leisurely in the town contacting 
various trappers, as a result of which I concluded it would be far 
more profitable for me to stay in the environs of Georgetown 
which is the focal point of the large river systems, and thus a 
convenient center for collecting any live animals brought in from 
almost any part of the Colony. 
It was not long before I was installed on the edge of the town 
near the Botanical Gardens, in a pension with ample space under 
the house and in the grounds for my animals. Almost at once 
the more easily acquired things such as Red Howler Monkeys and 
capybaras—specimens that obviously had been in captivity for 
some time—began to arrive. 
The Howler Monkey has a most sullen disposition, and in 
captivity usually looks the picture of misery, frequently roaring 
hate at the person who attempts to feed it. For this reason, I made 
it known that I was not interested and that it was therefore waste 
of time capturing them in the hope that I would be a buyer. 
This monkey is most appropriately named, for one male can 
produce the terrifying noises that one would expect to hear if all 
the animals in the Ark had been subjected to mass carnage. To 
make matters worse, they frequently disturb the quiet of the 
night by their diabolical outbursts, which are quite alarming in 
their intensity when reverberating through the forest. To accom- 
plish this the Howler possesses a special vocal apparatus in the 
larynx in the form of a hollow bony sac, and this is more de- 
veloped in the male. Like the Spider Monkeys and Capuchins, it 
possesses a prehensile tail which is naked on the under surface of 
the extremity. 
Two Red-faced Spider Monkeys came into my hands, and these 
