268 



MONKEY. 



To this there is a large opening backwards, to the 

 sides of which are articulated tour small elongated 

 bones, to whi-'-h the sacs alluded to by Humboldt are 

 attached. This case is in some of the species about 

 two inches from front to rear, and an inch and a half 

 in the cross diameter ; and when the animal howls, the 

 os hyoides is depressed below the lower jaw, deep as 

 its branches are. It is not well ascertained in what 

 manner this singular apparatus, an apparatus so dif- 

 ferent from that of the organ of voice in most animals, 

 acts ; but it is unquestionably an instrument of most 

 melancholy music. The animals which possess it, 

 though the largest of the American monkeys, are still 

 not animals of any considerable size, and yet their 

 voices are louder than the roaring of lions, being dis- 

 tinctly audible at the distance of nearly two miles all 

 round. On account of the loudness and harshness of 

 their tones, a stranger would be very apt to suppose 

 that the forests which they inhabit are thickly tenanted 

 b} r wild beasts of the most formidable description. 

 But the howling monkeys, though they do wage war 

 on such as dare to invade their pastures, wage war of 

 a different sort from that of the formidable beasts of 

 prey ; they assail the traveller with rotten sticks, 

 which they break from the trees, and with other less 

 cleanly substances which they themselves supply ; so 

 that, when Swift describes the most offensive prac- 

 tices of the yahoos, one would be apt to suppose that 

 the howling monkeys of the American forests had 

 furnished him with the picture. These animals are 

 exceedingly numerous in many parts of South Ame- 

 rica. Humboldt estimates their numbers in some 

 parts of the forests as being not less than two thou- 

 sand to the square league. Numerous as they are, 

 however, their value by no means corresponds, at 

 least in the estimation of Europeans. Part of this 

 may be prejudice, for the Indian tribes hunt them 

 with great avidity, shooting them with arrows enve- 

 nomed with wourali poison, shot from the bow, or 

 blown from the tube, according to circumstances. 

 Some travellers in the woods, and Mr. Waterton 

 among others, speak in favourable terms of the flesh 

 of some of the species ; but, as they are not much 

 sought after by the hunters among the colonists, it is 

 probable that this eccentric but delightful traveller 

 may have brought no ordinary share of " Spartan 

 sauce" to his monkey feasts. The skins are in some 

 request both in Brazil and the western countries for 

 covering saddles, or being placed on the backs of 

 mules, to prevent their loads from galling them ; but 

 the skins used for this purpose are few as compared 

 with the numbers of the animals. Indeed, it is no 

 easy matter to get hold of them. If they are sur- 

 prised upon the ground, they instantly befake them- 

 selves to the trees, and mount so rapidly and so high, 

 that nothing but gun-shot or arrows will reach them ; 

 and then, though they are killed, the chance is that 

 their dead bodies shall remain suspended in the tiee; 

 for though gun-shot wounds relax all the joints, 

 and even the features of the boldest warriors, it ap- ! 

 pears that they do not thus affect the prehensile tails 

 of these monkeys, for they hang suspended to the 

 branches after they are dead. 



The females of these, and indeed of all the Ame- 

 rican monkeys, never have any catamenial discharge, 

 and they bring forth only one young one at a time, 

 which they carry on the back. When the mothers 

 are pressed with danger, some writers say that they 

 abandon their young, while Spix gives them a very 



different character. He says that, even though a 

 female is wounded, it will not quit its young until it 

 tumbles to the earth exhausted and dying. 



The food of these animals is chiefly vegetable, con- 

 sisting of fruits and also of succulent leaves. As is 

 the case with the greater number of the handed ani- 

 mals, they prefer those woods which are nearest the 

 banks of the rivers, or the marshy places here the 

 water stagnates. The reason of this is obvious : the 

 trees in those places furnish the most constant supply 

 of food, either in fruits, or in leaves, and they also 

 abound the most in insects. There are several spe- 

 cies, the most common and the most conspicuous of 

 which is 



Tlielied Howling Monkey CM. semculux). This is 

 the species to which Humboldt alludes, under the 

 name of Monocoforado, and it is commonly termed 

 simply the red monkey. One of its most distin- 

 guishing characters is the nakedness of the face, upon 

 which there are only some short hairs under the eyes 

 and between the orbits on the mesial line. The body 

 is bright golden yellow in great part, but passes into 

 bright red on the shoulders, the thighs, and toward 

 the insertion of the tail. The beard, which covers the 

 whole enlargement on the under jaw, is bright maroon 

 red, and the rest of the legs and also the top of the 

 head are deep maroon, inclining to purple. The hair 

 on the fore part of the head is shaded so as to lie 

 outwards and backwards ; and there is another whirl 

 or centre of the hair at the lower part of the neck, in 

 consequence of which the huir on the hind part of 

 the head turns and meets that on the fore part, form- 

 ing a transverse crest of a semicircular form. The 

 hair on the cheeks is turned forwards and downwards ; 

 those on the outsides of the legs are directed down- 

 wards ; while those on the insides are directed up- 

 wards. The length of the full-grown individual is 

 at least two feet, and the tail is rather more, so that 

 among monkeys this is a large animal. The red 

 howling monkey is a native of the woods of most 

 parts of tropical America, unless those which are dry 

 and near the mountains, and have no monkeys' food 

 at some seasons of the year. They are particularly 

 abundant in the woods of Guiana, behind the Euro- 

 pean settlements in that part of the world. These 

 animals, and indeed most, if not all, of the genus, are 

 gregarious, and live in large troops, the members of 

 which appear to agree well with each other. There 

 is still some little confusion in the species, and it is 

 probable that there may be in the vast forests several 

 species which have not yet been observed by Eu- 

 ropeans. 



The Bear Hoiuling Monkey (M. ursinus). This 

 animal is also known by its colonial name Aragiiato. 

 It has sometimes been confounded with the former ; 

 but they appear to be quite distinct, and this one 

 much more of a mountaineer than the other. Hum- 

 boldt found them in great numbers at an elevation 

 where the temperature was not only moderate, but 

 even severely cold, and they made a very loud howl- 

 ing, especially before rain, so that they might be 

 turned into a sort of rude indicators of the weather. 

 In their deportment they are grave-looking animals. 

 In their general form they bear a considerable resem- 

 blance to the red howling monkeys ; but, being 

 exposed to higher temperatures, they are more abun- 

 dantly clothed, the under part of the body, which 

 is nearly naked in the other, being covered with hair 

 in this, and the face being also hairy. The hair is 



