320 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. V. 



and flexible tails, which are furnished underneath with 

 a naked palm like a hand, for grasping. The Barrigudos, 

 however, are very bulky animals, whilst the spider 

 monkeys are remarkable for the slenderness of their 

 bodies and limbs. I obtained specimens of what have 

 been considered two species, one (L. olivaceus of Spix ?) 

 having the head clothed with gray, the other (L. Hum- 

 boldtii) with black fur. They both live together in the 

 same places, and are probably only differently-coloured 

 individuals of one and the same species. I sent home a 

 very large male of one of these kinds, which measured 

 twenty-seven inches in length of trunk, the tail being 

 twenty-six inches long ; it was the largest monkey I saw 

 in America, with the exception of a black Howler, whose 

 body was twenty-eight inches in height. The skin of 

 the face in the Barrigudo is black and wrinkled, the 

 forehead is low, Avith the eye-brows projecting, and, in 

 short, the features altogether resemble in a striking 

 manner those of an old negro. In the forests, the 

 Barrigudo is not a very active animal ; it lives exclu- 

 sively on fruits, and is much persecuted by the Indians, 

 on account of the excellence of its flesh as food. From 

 information given me by a collector of birds and mam- 

 mals, whom I employed, and who resided a long time 

 amongst the Tucuna Indians, near Tabatinga, I calcu- 

 lated that one horde of this tribe, 200 in number, 

 destroyed 1200 of these monkeys annually for food. 

 The species is very numerous in the forests of the 

 higher lands, but, owing to long persecution, it is 

 now seldom seen in the neighbourhood of the larger 

 villages. It is not found at all on the Lower Amazons. 



