170 



FAMILY CEBIDJE. SPIDER MONKEYS. 



degree of south latitude ; and are especially numerous in those 

 vast forests which occupy the plains between the rivers Oronoko 

 and Amazons, and which are so little interrupted, save by the 

 intervening streams, that the Monkeys might almost pass along 

 the tops of the trees, for several hundred miles together, with- 

 out touching the earth. Of these forests, they are the chief 

 inhabitants ; all of them being arboreal in their mode of life, 

 that is, residing exclusively in trees. 



159. Of the genera which this family contains, we shall 

 notice the principal. The Ateles, or four-fingered Monkeys 

 ( 143), are distinguished by the great length, slenderness, and 

 flexibility of their limbs, and by the prehensile power of their 



FIG. 75. SPIDER MONKEYS. 



tails. From the former qualities, they have received the appel- 

 lation of Spider Monkeys. Their movements on the ground 

 are much wanting in firmness, even when they are resting on all 

 the four extremities ; giving them the aspect of crawlers, rather 



