334 ANIMALS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XII. 
alive by shooting them with the blow-pipe and arrows tipped with 
diluted Urari poison. They run a considerable distance after being 
pierced, and it requires an experienced hunter to track them. He is 
considered the most expert who can keep pace with a wounded one, 
and catch it in his arms when it falls exhausted. A pinch of salt, 
the antidote to the poison, is then put in its mouth, and the creature 
revives. The species is rare, even in the limited district which it 
inhabits. _Senhor Chrysostomo sent six of his most skilful Indians, 
who were absent three weeks before they obtained the twelve specimens 
which formed his unique and princely gift. When an independent 
hunter obtains one, a very high price (thirty to forty milreis*) is asked, 
these monkeys being in great demand for presents to persons of influence 
down the river. 
Adult Uakaris, caught in the way just described, very rarely become 
tame. They are peevish and sulky, resisting all attempts to coax them, 
and biting any one who ventures within reach. They have no particular 
cry, even when in their native woods ; in captivity they are quite silent. 
In the course of a few days or weeks, if not very carefully attended to, 
they fall into a listless condition, refuse food and die. Many of them 
succumb to a disease which I suppose from the symptoms to be 
inflammation of the chest or lungs. The one which I kept asa pet 
died of this disorder, after I had had it about three weeks. It lost its 
appetite in a very few days, although kept in an airy verandah ; its coat, 
which was originally long, smooth, and glossy, became dingy and ragged 
like that of the specimens seen in museums, and the bright scarlet 
colour of its face changed to a duller hue. This colour, in health, is 
spread over the features up to the roots of the hair on the forehead 
and temples, and down to the neck, including the flabby cheeks which 
hang down below the jaws. The animal in this condition looks at a 
short distance as though some one had laid a thick coat of red paint on 
its countenance. The death of my pet was slow; during the last 
twenty-four hours it lay prostrate, breathing quickly, its chest strongly 
heaving ; the colour of its face became gradually paler, but was still red 
when it expired. As the hue did not quite disappear until two or three 
hours after the animal was quite dead, I judged that it was not ex- 
clusively due to the blood, but partly to a pigment beneath the skin, 
which would probably retain its colour a short time after the circulation 
had ceased. 
After seeing much of the morose disposition of the Uakarf, I was not 
alittle surprised one day at a friend’s house to find an extremely lively 
and familiar individual of this species. It ran from an inner chamber 
straight towards me, after I had sat down on a chair, climbed my legs 
and nestled in my lap, turning round and looking up with the usual 
monkey’s grin, after it had made itself comfortable. It was a young 
animal which had been taken when its mother was shot with a poisoned 
arrow ; its teeth were incomplete, and the face was pale and mottled, 
the glowing scarlet hue not supervening in these animals before mature 
age ; it had also a few long black hairs on the eyebrows and lips. The 
frisky little fellow had been reared in the house amongst the children, 
* £375 to £4 135. 
