THE KINKAJOU 



compared to a cat. It is found in wooded districts from Central Mexico to the Rio 

 Negro in Brazil. In Guatemala, where it is far from rare, it ranges to elevations 

 of four thousand and five thousand feet above the sea. It conceals itself in the 

 holes of trees, in which it probably also breeds, issuing forth only at night in 

 search of food. A specimen which fell, when wounded, from a tree into a river 

 below swam well. It feeds on small Mammals, birds and their eggs, honey and 

 fruits, and appears to be specially partial to oranges and bananas. 



The expression of the kinkajou reminded Bates strongly of that of some of the 

 lemurs ; and he was also struck with the extreme brightness of its dark eyes. ' ' I 

 once saw it, ' ' he writes, ' ' in considerable numbers when on an excursion with an 



THE KINKAJOU. 

 (One-fourth natural size.) 



Indian companion along the low Ygapo shores of the Teffe, daout twenty miles 

 above Ega [on the upper Amazon] . We slept one night at the house of a native 

 family living in the thick of the forest, where a festival was going on, and there 

 being no room to hang our hammocks under shelter, on account of the number of 

 visitors, we lay down on a mat in the open air, near a shed which stood in the midst 

 of a grove of forest trees and pupunha palms. Past midnight, when all became still 

 after the uproar of the holiday-making, as I was listening to the dull, fanning sound 

 made by the wings of impish hosts of vampire-bats crowding round the cajer trees, 

 a rustle commenced from the side of the woods, and a troop of slender, long-tailed 

 animals were seen against the clear moonlit sky, taking flying leaps from branch to 



