100 THE FAUNA OF 
varied. In Asia the macaques are similar forms, with 
very large cheek-pouches and a most indiscriminate 
appetite, animal food entering largely into the diet. 
The baboons of Africa are much more widely dis- 
tributed through that continent than most genera of 
monkeys, but this is associated with the fact that they 
are not forest animals in the true sense, being chiefly 
found on rocky ground, and being practically quad- 
rupeds. The shortness of the arms is a drawback in 
climbing, at which they do not appear to be skilful. 
Very different from all the Old World monkeys are 
those which haunt the equatorial forests of Brazil, and 
constitute the Platyrrhine or American forms. All these 
animals are small, none has an opposable thumb, the 
tail is usually prehensile, and the partition between the 
nostrils is broad. Examples are the various kinds of 
capuchins, which have a mixed diet, and share with 
some Old World forms the habit of plundering culti- 
vated land. Inthe absence of cheek-pouches they carry 
away part of their spoil in their hands or under their 
arms, the arms not being indispensable in climbing, 
which is carried on largely by the tail. The spider mon- 
keys (Ateles) are comparable to the thumbless monkeys 
of Africa in the total absence of the thumb. As their 
name indicates, they have long slender limbs, and are 
very skilful climbers, the long and markedly prehensile 
tail playing a great part in the process. The leaf-eating 
howling monkeys (Mycetes, Fig. 23) may also be named, 
but a considerable number of other genera occur, some 
without prehensile tails. Though characteristic of the 
equatorial forests, these New World monkeys extend 
northwards into Southern Mexico, and southwards to 
lat. 30°S. 
Of much more limited distribution are the little 
