156 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



paws together; but he bit so furiously that we were under th 

 necessity of covering his head with our handkerchiefs." 



Indeed, those who have only seen these agile creatures in 

 menageries, or in a reclaimed state, can have no idea of the wild 

 activity of the tribe in their native woods. Swinging and leaping 

 from tree to tree, ever on the hunt for fruits and birds' nests they 

 are most unconscionable plunderers of eggs they lead a merry 

 life, which is, however, often cut short by those mighty snakes 

 that frequently lie in ambush near their careless, unsuspecting 

 prey. These serpents are the greatest enemies of the monkeys, 

 with the exception of the common persecutor man. He, indeed, 

 is sometimes touched by compunctious visitings, when it is too late. 



" Seeing me," says a South American traveller, speaking of a 

 monkey, " nearly on the bank of the river in a canoe, the creature 

 made a halt from skipping after his companions, and, being 

 perched on a branch that hung over the water, examined me with 

 attention and the strongest marks of curiosity, no doubt taking me 

 for a giant of his own species, while he chattered prodigiously, 

 and kept dancing- and shaking the bough on which he rested, with 

 incredible strength and agility. At this time I laid my piece to 

 my shoulder, and brought him down from the tree into the stream ; 

 but may I never again be a witness to such a scene ! The mise- 

 rable animal was not dead, but mortally wounded. I seized him 

 by the tail, and taking him in both my hands to end his torments, 

 swung him round and hit his head against the side of the canoe ; 

 but the poor creature still continuing alive, and looking at me in 

 the most affecting manner that can be conceived, I knew no other 

 means of ending his murder than to hold him under the water 

 till he was drowned, while my heart sickened on his account, for 

 his dying little eyes still continued to follow me with seeming 

 reproach, till their light gradually forsook them, and the wretched 

 animal expired. I felt so much on 'this occasion that I could 

 neither taste of him nor his companions when they were dressed, 

 though I saw that they afforded to some others a delicious repast.' 



The repentant writer and his party were driven to the commis- 

 sion of the act for the want of fresh provisions ; and many of the 



