Memoir up07i the Jpes with imperfect Hands. 5 



longer limbs ; but the ateles seem to be in other respects 

 very ill formed, their legs being altogether slender. ' The 

 hand deprived of one finger seems to have no palm, and 

 terminates, in a disagreeable manncrj a very lank and ugly 

 arm ; and lasily, what adds principally to their disagreeable 

 look is, that their tail is longer than the extremities, and which 

 to embarrass them very much when they sit down. 



The ateles, also, nearly approach the orangs bv the form 

 of their head : they have a prominent forehead, and a chin 

 equally so : the occiput in all of them is remarkable for an 

 inequality, rendered so much the more perceptible as the 

 hair with which the head is covered, for the most part, in- 

 clines towards the front. The eyes are large, the ears small, 

 and well rounded towards the top. In common with all the 

 apes of America, their nostrils are open at one side, and se- 

 parated by a large division. 



The body is small and long : it is remarkably slender, 

 and, as it were, strangled towards the belly; it appears, how- 

 ever, fuller about the chest, the capacity of which seems to 

 be large enough. The skin is hindered from growing com- 

 pletely over the sides of the belly by the thighs, which, 

 when the animal sits, approach very close to it. 



The legs arc nearly in the same proportions, if not a little 

 shorter than the arms. The foot has a broader base than 

 the hand, which can only be attributed to the existence of 

 the additional toe or finger in the former 3 the metatarsal 

 bones and the bones of the phalangs are at least as lono- 

 as the analogous little bones in the fore extremities. The 

 thumb is sensibly detached from the fingers; the nail, which 

 protects the extremity of it, is large, and completely flat- 

 tened. On the contrary, in the fore feet there only exists 

 a mere root of a thumb, which is manifested by the me- 

 tacarpal bone and a very small phalange, which may be 

 easily Iclt in the living animal ; no vestige of it, however, 

 appears to the eye, whatever may be the niovements of the 

 aiiinial : it is only in one species that this rudiment of a 

 thumb is found. 



The nails are crooked and very pointed, as in all the sa- 

 pnj'yus. 



A 3 The 



