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perfectly innoxious ; and this, together with their 

 beauty arid their liveliness, makes them much sought 

 after as pet animals by the European settlers on the 

 coasts of their native country. In the capture of 

 insects they show a wonderfu) adroitness ; and so 

 well are they acquainted with the appearance of this 

 their favourite prey, that Humboldt says they are 

 capital judges of the portraits of insects even in 

 black engravings, and will clutch at them although 

 the same paper contains other representations of 

 nearly the same size as the insects. This is not to be 

 wondered at, because all animals which prey in great 

 part by sight, and especially nocturnal ones, have a 

 strong magnifying power in the eyes, and conse- 

 quently they can see objects with great distinctness. 

 The squirrel monkeys seize their food indiscriminately 

 with tlie mouth or with the hand, though most fre- 

 quently with the latter ; and it is not a little remark- 

 able to witness the extreme dexterity with which 

 so small a hand seizes an insect in the act of flving 

 rapidly past, nor is there perhaps any other animal 

 capable of catching flies on the wing so cleverly by 

 means of a single prehensile instrument. There are 

 some coloured varieties of these animals ; and in the 

 same individual the colour is understood to deepen 

 with age ; it does not appear, however, that there is 

 any thing upon which we should be warranted in 

 founding a specific difference. 



The Widow Monkey (C. lugcns*). This species in- 

 habits nearly the same localities as the former ; but 

 it is far more rare, or at all events more rarely seen. 

 The covering is very soft and shining, and uniformly 

 black, except the front of the breast and the anterior 

 hands, which are white. The face is whitish, slightly 

 tinged with blue, and traversed by two deeper lines, 

 which strongly mark the eyes. The produced hair 

 on the top of the head has the black glossed with 



Eurple reflections ; but the back, the tail, and the 

 ind feet and legs, are entirely black, without any 

 reflection, but by no means destitute of lustre. The 

 manners of an animal belonging to a tribe which 

 dwell in obscurity, and being the most obscure of all 

 that tribe, cannot of course be much known to 

 Europeans. Humboldt, to whom we are indebted 

 for some of the best accounts of the animals of the 

 northern parts of South America, and whose judicious 

 manners recommended him to the most kindly atten- 

 tions from the Indians, met only with a single living 

 specimen in the hands of those people. They assured 

 him, however, that animals of this species do not, 

 like those of the preceding, or indeed like most of 

 the American monkeys, assemble in troops, and con- 

 duct themselves in a sportive manner. They live in 

 pairs, and are of exceedingly sad and melancholy 

 aspect, dozing away their time, and shunning every 

 other animal of the same family. All this sadness 

 ;i:id retirement are not, however, indications of 

 simplicity of life ; for the widow monkey is perhaps 

 the most carnivorous of all the handed animals of 

 the American continent. It lies in wait, and springs 

 upon its prey like a little tiger ; indeed, the bound 

 which it can make, when hungry and excited, by the 

 sight of what will afford it a meal, is more than ten 

 times greater, in proportion to its size, than the 

 spring of the tiger. Birds excite it the most, and 

 therefore we may naturally conclude that they are 

 its chief and favourite food. It is not only more 

 carnivorous than the squirrel monkey, but it is also a 

 more powerful animal. Its body is about a fifth 



longer, and all its parts are longer and stronger in 

 nearly the same proportion. 



The masked Monkey (C. personatus), is a Brazilian 

 species, and found chiefly in the forests on the banks 

 of the large rivers. It is of larger size than either of 

 those already mentioned, the total length being about 

 two feet and a half, which is almost equally divided 

 between the body and the head and the tail. Its 

 general covering is yellowish grey, but the face, the 

 top of the head, the cheeks, and the tips of the ears, 

 are deep black in the male, and dark brown on the 

 female, and it is from this marking that it has received 

 the name of the masked monkey. The hairs on the 

 back and the limbs, which show the grey colour, are 

 annulated with dark colour and sandy white, and the 

 under part of the body gradually passes into a greyish 

 sand colour. The tail is rather bushy in its covering, 

 and of a reddish yellow ; the hind feet, with the 

 exception of the nails, are deep black. 



The ruffed Monkey (C. amictus). This also is a 

 Brazilian species, but occurs in the interior of the 

 countries more to the west. It is still larger than 

 the former, being about double the size of the squirrel 

 monkey. The body, the fore-arms, and the legs, are 

 black, mottled with brown ; the lower part of the 

 neck and the upper part of the breast white ; the feet 

 sandy yellow, and the tail entirely black, and not 

 nearly so woolly as in most of the genus. 



Some naturalists are of opinion that the three last 

 mentioned are only coloured varieties of the widow 

 monkey. There appears not to be any structural 

 difference between them which would lead us to infer 

 that there is even the slightest difference in habit ; 

 but still the sizes and markings of the colour vary 

 much more than they do in any wild animals which 

 the systematists usually consider as belonging to the 

 same species. We have therefore described them as 

 represented by authors, and we shall do the same 

 with the species that remain, although they also may, 

 in some instances at least, be coloured varieties. 

 This is perhaps the most interesting genus of all the 

 handed animals of America, inasmuch as it appears 

 to form a link between the more typical handed 

 animals and the smaller ones, which are more de- 

 cidedly predatory, and, as such, referrible to the 

 order Carnassier ; but, as is very often the case in 

 natural history, the study of these animals is difficult 

 in proportion as it is interesting. 



The collared Monkey (C. torquntus~). This is 

 understood to be a Brazilian species, but nothing is 

 known of it in the living state. The only account 

 that we have of it is founded upon a single skin in a 

 German collection, and, in so far as colour goes, this 

 skin is different from any of the described species 

 which have been seen alive. The general colour is 

 chestnut brown, passing into yellow on the under 

 part, and the anterior part of the neck is marked 

 with a half collar of white. 



The Moloch Monkey (C. Moloch) is a Brazilian 

 species, but exceedingly rare. It is about twice the 

 size of the squirrel monkey. The general colour of 

 the fur is ash ; but as the hairs are annulated, a 

 varied and varying colour appears on the back and 

 external parts of the legs. The insides of the legs 

 are bright ash-colour, and the hands and point of the 

 tail pass into pale grey, and indeed, almost into white. 

 The face is brown, and, generally speaking, naked ; 

 though there are some straggling rough hairs on the 

 checks and chin. The under part of the body and 

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