52 



THE APES AND MONKEYS. 



sulky Monkey, steep the arrow in weak Urari 

 poison. When he falls down unconscious from the 



MIRIKI SPIDER MONKEY. It is only in South America that 



Monkeys are found whose tails are prehensile, or capable of grasping the 

 objects about which they coil. The Spider Monkeys are especially gifted in 

 this way. a particularly interesting family of these being the Miriki. They 

 live in Southeastern Brazil, have fur of a woolly texture, rising to a tuft on 

 the end and a beard surrounds the face. They have very long tails, and one 

 of their ways of using them is well brought to view by the Monkey in the 

 background of this picture. (Ateles hypoxanthus.) 



effect of the poison they suck the wound ; then they 

 bury him up to the neck, 

 and make him swallow 

 some earth containing salt- 

 petre or some juice of the 

 sugar-cane. When the 

 Monkey which has been 

 sickened by this treatment 

 begins to regain conscious- 

 ness, they dig him out and 

 swathe him in bandages 

 In these bandages he is 

 kept for several days, and 

 the only beverage he re- 

 ceives is sugar-cane juice, 

 while all his food is sea- 

 soned with saltpeter and 

 plenty of red pepper. If 

 this treatment does not 

 tame him, he is smoked 

 for some time — "like a 

 ham." Soon his rage be- 

 gins to abate, his counte- 

 nance becomes placid and 

 he is given milder treat- 

 ment. The bandages are 

 taken away and after such 

 a cure the most aggressive 

 Monkey forgets that he 

 ever lived wild in a forest. 

 Few American Monkeys 



agerie in the United States. There are some very 

 fine specimens in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and in 

 Central Park, New York City. The Capuchins are 

 the species most frequently seen in the European 

 animal markets ; the Spider Monkeys are rarer, and 

 the Saimaris one hardly ever meets. Very few liv- 

 ing Howlers have been brought to Europe. 



The Broad-nosed or American Monkeys are di- 

 vided into two groups : those whose tails are pre- 

 hensile, the Cebidae, and those whose tails are not 

 prehensile, the Pithecidae. 



THE HOWLERS. 



Chief among the Cebidas is the Howler {Mycetes). 

 The head of this animal is high and of pyramidal 

 shape and the muzzle projects forward. The thumbs 

 are thin. The chin is adorned with a beard. A re- 

 markable peculiarity of the Howlers is their hyoid 

 bone, or the bone in the neck from which the mus- 

 cles of the tongue arise. Alexander von Humboldt 

 was the first naturalist to dissect the Howler, and he 

 says : 



Where Howlers "The other American Monkeys, 

 get their whose voice is piping like a Spar- 

 Strong Voice, row's, have a plain, thin hyoid bone , 

 but in this species the tongue rests on an extensive 

 bony drum. Their upper larynx has six pockets 

 which reflect the voice ; two of these pockets are 

 shaped like a pigeon's nest and resemble a bird's 

 larynx. The plaintive sound peculiar to the Howlers 

 is produced by the air forcibly streaming into the 

 bony drum. If one considers the size of this drum,, 

 he is no longer astonished at the strength of the 



COAITA SPIDER MONKEY. 



-The artist has caught two Coaitas in attitudes that tell more strongly 

 than words how the family came to get the name of Spiders ; for how nearly like large Spiders do they look as they 

 hang with extended limbs from the tree-branch. The Coaita, which is found in Surinam and Brazil, is large for 

 its group, although exceedingly slender. (Aides paniscus.) 



. are taken to Europe 

 although the" may be seen in any museum or men- 



voices of these animals, which have earned for them 

 a perfect right to the name of Howlers. 



