THE SPIDER-MONKEYS. 



231 



in pilfering small ai'ticles of clothing, which it conceals in its 

 sleeping place." 



The Coaitas are like the rest of the Cebidce, essentially quad- 

 rupedal, but they occasionally assume the erect posture. They 

 are purely arboreal in habit, living in small companies in the 

 very high trees of the forest. 



Their geographical distribution is very wide. They extend 

 over the whole area of the Cebidce, i.e., over two of the sub- 

 regions, the Brazilian and Mexican, of the Neotropical Region. 



I. THE VARIEGATED SPIDER-MONKEY. ATELES VARIEGATUS. 



Ateles niarginatus (nee Geoffr.), Hurnb. Obs. Zool., pp. 340, 



354(i8n). 



Ateles variegatus, Wagner in Schreb., Saugeth., i., p. 313 



(1843); id. Abhandl. Akad. Miinch., v., p. 420 (1847) ; 



Sclater, P. Z. S., 1870, p. 668; 1871, pp. 39, 225; Gray, 



Ann. Nat. Hist. (4), vi. (1870), p. 472. 



Sapajou geoffroyi (nee Kuhl), Slack, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 



Philad., 1862, p. 511 [= $\ 



Ateles bartletti, Gray, P. Z. S., 1867, p. 992, pi. xlvii. 

 Ateles melanochir, var. Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 43 



(1870, in part). 

 Ateles chuva, Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 175 ( l8 7 6 )- 



(Plate XX f.) 



Characters. Male. Fur of body abundant, long, and soft; 

 hair of back and top of head long and directed forwards, and 

 projecting over the forehead ; beneath and behind the cheeks 

 a band of longish hairs, directed forwards. Top of head, back, 

 front aspect of the entire arms, and of the legs to the knees, 

 hands, feet, and upper side of tail glossy blue-black ; a band 



