SAPAJOUS. 151 



mentions one which he shot at a height of fully one hundred and fifty feet above 

 the ground. Writing of one of the Chilian species, M. Germain states that " these 

 monkeys usually have a permanent sleeping-place, whence they issue every morning 

 to explore the neighbouring trees ; the eggs and young of birds, insects, tender shoots, 

 and, above all, fruits forming their chief food. I have never seen them/' continues 

 M. Germain, " on 'the ground, and I believe they never leave the tree-tops; while I 

 have observed that they have particular routes in their journeys through the forest. 

 The troops in which they live are not numerous, comprising from eight to a dozen 

 individuals, under the leadership of an old and experienced male. When they 

 arrive at the locality, where the fruits of which they are in search are to be found, 

 each endeavours to seize as speedily as possible the best upon which it can lay its 

 hands ; but, both on its arrival and during its return, the band is far from being in 

 disorder. In dangerous places, where a kind of gymnastic performance has to be 

 undertaken, the troop passes in single file ; each one not risking the jump till the 

 one in advance has safely passed, and then seizing firmly the same boughs and 

 jumping in just the same manner as the latter. I have sometimes seen them at 

 a height of about one hundred and fifty feet from the ground suspend themselves by 

 the tail from a branch, then balance themselves, with all four limbs stretched out, 

 then, all of a sudden, let themselves go, and falling for a distance of some twenty or 

 thirty feet, seize hold of another bough by the tail. In such falls the outstretched 

 arms seem only ready in case of accident, for there is never any question of 

 maladroitness." 



Together with the spider-monkeys, the sapajous are the most docile and the 

 most readily taught of all the American monkeys, and since they bear confinement 

 and the European climate well, they are the most common of the monkeys carried 

 about by the peripatetic organ-grinder. 



THE WHITE-CHEEKED SAPAJOU (Cebus lunatus). 



The white-cheeked sapajou, of which a representation is given in the middle 

 upper figure of the woodcut on page 150, is an inhabitant of Brazil. According 

 to Dr. Gray's description, this animal is characterised by the length of the hair 

 on the head, which is directed backwards, while that round the jaw is longer, 

 and curved so as to form a kind of crest on each eyebrow. On the cheeks the 

 hair is short and flattened down. The fur of the body and head is long, soft, 

 and silky, its general colour being blackish, but that on the cheeks and temples is 

 yellowish-white. It is this light hair on the cheeks that gives its distinctive 

 name to the species. The head is relatively large. 



THE BROWN SAPAJOU (Cebus fatuellus). 



In Guiana the sapajous are represented by a species commonly known as the 

 brown sapajou, which presents a certain variation due either to differences of age, 

 or to individual peculiarity, in regard to the form of the hair on the head, which 

 has led to the supposition that there were two distinct species. In one of these 

 forms, as represented in the upper right-hand figure of the woodcut on p. 150, the 



