Cuap. VI. COAITAS MONKEYS. 127 
and feeling, its master set to and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, 
heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious Portuguese 
vocabulary of vituperation. The poor monkey, quietly seated on the 
ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this display of anger. It began 
by looking earnestly at him, then it whined, and lastly rocked its body 
to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and passing its long gaunt 
arms continually over its forehead ; for this was its habit when excited, 
and the front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence. At 
length its master altered his tone. “It’s all a lie, my old woman; 
you're an angel, a flower, a good affectionate old creature,” and so 
forth. Immediately the poor monkey ceased its wailing, and soon 
after came over to where the man sat. The disposition of the Coaita 
is mild in the extreme: it has none of the painful, restless vivacity of 
its kindred, the Cebi, and no trace of the surly, untamable temper of 
its still nearer relatives, the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, 
however, an arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfering 
small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping place. ‘The 
natives of the Upper Amazons procure the Coaita, when full grown, by 
shooting it with the blowpipe and poisoned darts, and restoring life by 
putting a little salt (the antidote to the Urari poison with which the 
darts are tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus caught become tame 
forthwith. Two females were once kept at the Jardin des Plantes of 
Paris, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted 
each other, remaining most part of the time in close embrace, folding 
their tails round one another’s bodies. They took their meals together ; 
and it was remarked on such occasions, when the friendship of animals 
is put to a hard test, that they never quarrelled or disputed the posses- 
sion of a favourite fruit with each other. 
The neighbourhood of Obydos was rich in insects. In the broad 
alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly of the genus Morpho, six to 
eight inches in expanse, the Morpho Hecuba, was seen daily gliding 
along at a height of twenty feet or more from the ground. Amongst 
the lower trees and bushes numerous kinds of Heliconii, a group of 
butterflies peculiar to tropical America, having long narrow wings, were 
very abundant. The prevailing ground colour of the wings of these 
insects is a deep black, and on this are depicted spots and streaks of 
crimson, white, and bright yellow, in different patterns according to the 
species. Their elegant shape, showy colours, and slow, sailing mode 
of flight, make them very attractive objects, and their numbers are so 
great that they form quite a feature in the physiognomy of the forest, 
compensating for the scarcity of flowers. Next to the Heliconii, the 
Catagrammas (C. astarte and C. peristera) were the most conspicuous. 
These have a very rapid and short flight, settling frequently and re- 
maining stationary for a long time on the trunks of trees. The colours 
of their wings are vermilion and black, the surface having a rich velvety 
appearance. The genus owes ‘its Greek name Catagramma (signifying 
“a letter beneath”) to the curious markings of the underside of the 
wings, resembling Arabic numerals. The species and varieties are of 
almost endless diversity, but the majority inhabit the hot valleys of the 
