THE SHORT-TUSKED MARMOSETS 191 



cured at Bahia, and at first it is described as being "exceedingly bold and fierce, 

 screeching most vehemently when anyone dared to approach it. ... It was 

 long before it was so reconciled even to those who fed it as to allow the slightest 

 liberty in the way of touching or patting its body ; and it was almost impossible to 

 do this by surprise, or by the most quiet and cautious approach, as the monkey was 

 not steady a moment, but was constantly turning its head round from side to side, 

 eying every person with the most suspicious and angry look. Its sense of hearing 

 appeared to be excessively acute, so that the slightest whisper was sure to arouse it. 

 The voice of this little animal was peculiarly sharp and disagreeable, consisting of a 

 very quick succession of harsh and shrill sounds (imitated by the name ouistiti), so 

 loud that they might be heard from the remotest part of the ship. 



' ' For a considerable time there was no evident change in its habits, as it con- 

 tinued to be nearly as wild as when I first got it, and showed none of the playfulness 

 and vivacity which characterize most of the monkey tribe. As long as the fruit 

 which we had on board lasted, it would eat nothing else; but, when this failed, 

 we soon discovered a most agreeable substitute, which it appeared to relish above 

 everything. By chance* we observed it devouring a large cockroach which it had 

 caught running along the deck of the vessel ; and from this time till nearly the end 

 of the voyage, a space of four or five weeks, it fed almost exclusively on these 

 insects, and contributed most effectually to rid the vessel of them. It frequently ate 

 a score of the largest kind, which are two or two and a half inches long, and a very 

 great number of the smaller ones, two or three times in the course of the day. It 

 was quite amusing to see it at its meal. When it had got hold of one of the large 

 cockroaches, it held the cockroach in its fore-paws, and then invariably nipped the 

 head off first ; it then pulled out the viscera and cast them aside, and devoured the 

 rest of the body, rejecting the dry elytra and wings, and also the legs of the insect, 

 which are covered with short, stiff bristles. The small cockroaches it ate without 

 such fastidious nicety. In addition to these, we gave it milk, sugar, raisins, and 

 crumbs of bread. Hitherto the weather was warm, the thermometer never being 

 below 65 or 60 Fahr. ; but as we reached a more northern latitude, and approached 

 England, the change of temperature affected the monkey very considerably, and 

 now it would not even touch the cockroaches when given to it ; the hair, espe- 

 cially that on the tail, fell off ; and, at the end of the voyage, this organ was almost 

 quite bare and naked. It kept constantly in the kennel, rolling itself up in a 

 piece of flannel, which had been put in for warmth, except when it could reach a 

 sunny part of the deck, where it might bask in the heat. There was a considerable 

 continuance of cold northeasterly winds, the thermometer ranging as low as from 

 42 to 36, and as the monkey ate little or nothing, and was quite inactive, I hardly 

 expected to have kept it alive. 



' ' When I got it on shore I kept it for some days in a warm room ; it gradually 

 recovered its nimbleness, running about the room, and dragging its kennel after it. 

 Even then it would not eat any insects, and its food consisted of milk and -crumbs of 

 bread ; it was particularly fond of any sweet preserve, as jelly, and of ripe fresh fruits. ' ' 



Mr. Bates, who compares the ouistiti to a kitten, banded with black and gray 

 all over the body and tail, and having a fringe of long white hairs around the ears, 



