244 THE LOWER AMAZON'S. Chap. VI. 



sciureus, the Callithrix torquatus, and our old Para 

 friend, Midas ursulus. The Coaita is a large black 

 monkey, covered with coarse hair, and having the pro- 

 minent parts of the face of a tawny flesh-coloured hue. 

 It is the largest of the Amazonian monkeys in stature, 

 but is excelled in bulk by the " Barrigudo'' (Lagothrix 

 Humboldtii) of the Upper Amazons. It occurs through- 

 out the low lands of the Lower and Upper Amazons, but 

 does not range to the south beyond the limits of the 

 river plains. At that point an allied species, the White- 

 whiskered Coaita (Ateles marginatus) takes its place. 

 The Coaitas are called by some French zoologists spider 

 monkeys, on account of the length and slenderness of 

 their body and limbs. In these apes the tail, as a pre- 

 hensile organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection; 

 and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to con- 

 sider the Coaitas as the extreme development of the 

 American tjrpe of apes. As far as we know, from living 

 and fossil species, the New World has progressed no 

 farther than the Coaita towards the production of a 

 higher form of the Quadrumanous order. The tendency 

 of Nature here has been, to all appearance, simply to 

 perfect those organs which adapt the species more and 

 more completely to a purely arboreal life ; and no nearer 

 approach has been made towards the more advanced 

 forms of anthropoid apes, which are the products of the 

 Old World solely. The tail of the Coaita is endowed 

 with a wonderful degree of flexibility. It is always in 

 motion, coiling and uncoiling like the trunk of an 

 elephant, and grasping whatever comes within reach. 

 Another remarkable character of the Coaita is the ab- 



