THE SPIDER-MONKEYS. 235 



frequenting the highest trees of the forest, both in the low 

 country and at high elevations, and living on fruits and insects, 

 but chiefly on the former. Mr. Belt relates that on the banks 

 of the Antigua he saw a valuable tree, the " Nispera " (Achras 

 sapota), growing on the dryer ridges. " It bears a round fruit 

 about the size of an apple, hard and heavy when green, and at 

 this time it is much frequented by the large yellowish-brown 

 Spider-Monkey (Ateles\ which roams over the tops of the trees 

 in bands of from ten to twenty. Sometimes they lay quite 

 quiet until I was passing underneath, when, shaking a branch 

 of the Nispera tree, they would send down a shower of the hard 

 round fruit ; but fortunately I was never struck by them. As 

 soon as I looked up they would commence yelping and barking 

 and putting on the most threatening gestures, breaking off 

 pieces of branches and letting them fall, and shaking off more 

 fruit, but never throwing anything, simply letting it fall.* Often 

 when on lower trees, they would hang from the branches, two 

 or three together, holding on to each other and to the branch 

 with their fore-feet and long tail, whilst their hind-feet hung 

 down, all the time making threatening gestures and cries. 

 Sometimes a female would be seen carrying a young one on 

 its back, to which it clung with legs and tail, the mother 

 making its way along the branches, and leaping from tree to 

 tree, apparently but little encumbei ad by its baby. A large 

 black and white Eagle is said to prey upon them, but I never 

 saw one, although I was constantly falling in with troops of the 

 Monkeys. Don Francisco Velasquez, one of our officers, told 

 me that one day he heard a Monkey crying out in the forest 

 for more than two hours, and at last, going to see what was 



* Humboldt and Stedman both state that these Monkeys threw pieces 

 of branches towards them. 



