88 QUADRUMANA. 



arrows of the Indians, on the other hand, produce an instantaneous loss 

 of consciousness, and the insensible victim falls helpless to the ground. 



They are sometimes caught by an ingenious stratagem. A certain 

 plant, the ■' Lecythis," produces a kind of nut, which, when emptied of 

 its contents, becomes a hollow vessel with a small mouth. Into one of 

 these hollowed nuts a quantity of sugar is placed, the nut left in some 

 locality where the monkey is likely to find it, and the monkey-catchers 

 retreat to some spot whence they can watch unseen the effect of their trap. 



So tempting an object cannot lie on the ground for any length of time 

 without being investigated by the inquisitive monkeys. One of them 

 soon finds out the sweet treasure of the nut, and squeezes his hand 

 through the narrow opening for the purpose of emptying the contents. 

 Grasping a handful of sugar, he tries to pull it out, but cannot do so 

 because the orifice is not large enough to permit the passage of the 

 closed hand with its prize. Certainly, he could extricate his hand by 

 leaving the sugar and drawing out his hand empty, but his acquisitive 

 nature will not suffer him to do so. At this juncture, the ambushed 

 hunters issue forth and give chase to the monkey. At all times, these 

 monkeys arc clumsy enough on a level surface, but when encumbered 

 with the heavy burden, which is often as big as the monkey's own head, 

 and deprived of one of its hands, it falls an easy victim to the pursuers. 



Young ones are often captured by the cruel device of shooting a 

 nursing mother, who even when dying clasps her loved little one to her 

 bleeding breast. At times, indeed, she rises to the tragic grandeur of 

 sacrificing her maternal instincts, and dying without the consolations ol 

 her offspring's embraces in order that it ma)' have a chance of liberty. 

 Spix relates that he had mortally wounded a female, who carried her 

 progeny on her back. The poor parent fell from branch to branch, and 

 the young one would undoubtedly have perished with her, had not she, 

 collecting all her strength, and desperate in her anxiety and tenderness, 

 thrown it with a fast-failing arm, on to a high branch, and in this way 

 succeeded in preserving it from the unhappy fate which befell herself. 



By a strange, or rather by the natural injustice of human judgment, 

 this action is often alleged as a proof that the female of the Mycetes is 

 devoid of maternal aifection. 



In Paraguay these monkeys are regularly hunted for their skins and 

 flesh. Francia, the dictator, had his grenadiers' caps made of skins from 

 the Black Howler, and the natives use them for shabracques, saddle-bags 



