6 Me7noir upon the Apes with impeyfect Hands, 



The tail, with which we see the animal so encumberetf, 

 plays a distinguished part in its various movements. We 

 know no species of ape with a longer tail, and in particular 

 there is none whose tail possesses more muscular strength. 

 The ateles make use of it for every purpose : if they wish to 

 remove themselves, it is always used to furnish them with a 

 new place of rest; when they jump at any thing to catch it, 

 they warp it round the branches in a spiral form; if they 

 wish to seize any thing at a great distance, it displays at the 

 extremity of a long lever all the properties of a hand, which 

 seizes every thing with great address; the part of the tail 

 which serves oftenest and most efficaciously for seizing any 

 thmg, that is to say, the lower extremity, is deprived of hair, 

 and covered with a thick and as it were callous epidermis. 



The manners of the ateles differ very little from those of 

 the sapajou ; they send forth the same shrill cry, resembling 

 the whistling of small birds in the night ; at other times it 

 is a weaker cry, soft and melodious, by which they seem to 

 express complaints or fatigue. They are also very sensible 

 to the cold of our climate. 



Although kept in a heated place they are not the less at- 

 tentive to sitting down and folding themselves forward, and 

 in this situation their tail serves for an excellent fur for co- 

 vering the parts most exposed. Our two young individuals 

 are more careful still : they combat every loss of heat by 

 combined operations; they often embrace each other belly 

 to belly, with the legs and arms entwined, and besides sur- 

 rounded by their tails, and soon forget the cold in this atti- 

 tude. I have often seen the curious very much struck with 

 this spectacle, and testify how singular it appeared to them 

 to see two heads thus continually in motion and agitated by 

 different sensations, while their bodies were so closely joined 

 together in a manner which naturally expresses the most af- 

 fectionate senliments, without being actuated by any real 

 mutual tenderness. 



'i'hey are sometimes, however, susceptible of mutual ten- 

 derness : tliose in our possession, which are of the same 

 sex, both females, are upon a good understanding with each 

 other, and they cannot be separated without testifying the 



most 



