536 



THE SIMI^ OF THE NEW WORLD 



the iirans, whom they ma-y be said to represent in the New 

 World. Their shaggy hair is of a brown or blackish colour, and 

 they chiefly subsist on fruits and foliage. 



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 Belzebub) 

 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 the quadrumanous tribes. 



Like the African Colobi, the spider monkeys have no thumb 

 on their fore-hands ; their voice is a soft and flute-like 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 fro with it, 



until his companion is able to attain 



it by a spring. But when a young 



Black Spider Monkey. ^loukey that is already sufficiently 



strong, is fearful, the mother, to give him courage, repeats 



the manoeuvre several times before him. 



The spider monkeys live in more or less numerous troops, and 

 chiefly subsist on insects, though when near the sea they will 

 also come down upon the beach and feed on mollusks, parti- 

 cularly on oysters, whose shells they are said to crack with a 

 stone. 



Though the sajous have a prehensile tail, it is not de- 

 nuded on the under surface of its extremity, as in the above- 

 mentioned tribes, and consequently not so delicate an organ 

 of touch. They are lively, active, mild, and intelligent crea- 

 tures. 



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 



