HOWLIXft MONKEY. 



HOWLIXG MONKEY. 513 



force ; and now you hear his last dying moan, beneath a 



mortal wound. Some naturalists have supposed that these 



awful sounds can only proceed from a 



number of the red monkeys howling 



in concert, but one of them alone is 



equal to the task. In dark and cloudy 



weather, and just before a squall of 



rain, the Aluate often howls in the 



day-time ; and on advancing cautiously 



to the high and tufted tree where he 



is sitting, one may then have a good 



opportunity of seeing the large lump in 



his throat, the sounding-board which gives such volume to his 



voice, move up and down as he exerts his stentorian lungs. 



The howling monkeys are the most robust of the American 

 simise, and in spite of their long tail have a certain analogy 

 with the urans, whom they may be said to represent in the 

 Xew World. Their various species range from Paraguay to 

 Honduras, while the Ateles or Spider Monkeys, thus named 

 from their long slender limbs and sprawling movements, extend 

 over the whole surface of tropical America. The marimonda 

 {Ateles Beheb'wb) is even found on the eastern slopes of the 

 Andes at a height of 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, an 

 elevation attained by him alone of all tlie quadrumanous tribes. 

 Like the African Colobi, the spider monkeys have no thumb 

 on their fore-hands ; their voice is a soft and flute-Hke 

 whistling, resembling the piping of a bird. It is said that 

 when a mother burthened with her young hesitates to take too 

 wide a leap, paterfamilias seizes the branch she intends to 

 reach, and swings himself to and fra with it, until his 

 companion is able to attain it by a spring. 



The second group of American monkeys, consisting of those 

 with a non-prehensile tail, comprises the Sakis, the Saimiris, 

 the Ouistitis, &c. 



The Sakis, or Fox-tailed Monkeys, are distinguished by 

 their bushy tail, which, however, in some species, is very short. 

 They usually live in the outskirts of forests, in small societies 

 of ten or twelve. Upon the slightest provocation, they 

 display a morose and savage temper, and, like the howling- 

 monkeys, utter loud cries before sunrise and after sunset. 



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