DOUROUCOLIS. 165 



On the River Tigri Mr. Bartlett describes these monkeys as living in small 

 parties and travelling rapidly through the forests in the search of their favourite 

 food, which is a berry resembling a gooseberry in size, but with a hard stone 

 inside. Mr. Bartlett states that he had to ascend to the very summits of the ranges 

 bordering the Tigri valley before his search was rewarded. " Here," he writes, " we 

 came across a number of them about eight or nine. I shot the male that is now 

 in the British Museum, and my Indians brought down another with a poison dart. 

 Having obtained two of them I was satisfied that I had found a new species. 

 While, however, I was busily preparing the first specimen, my Indians had quietly 

 placed the other on the fire, and, to my great horror and disgust, they had singed 

 the hair off, and thus spoilt the specimen. Of course I was obliged to keep the 

 peace, for they had not tasted meat for some days, and the monkey proved a very 

 dainty dish." 



The first example of this monkey brought alive to England came from the 

 Upper Caura river in Venezuela, and arrived at the Gardens of the London 

 Zoological Society on July 14th, 1870. Its stay there was, however, of the briefest, 

 since it died on August 18th following. 



THE DOUROUCOLIS. 

 Genus Nyctipithecus. 



The douroucolis, or nocturnal owl-faced monkeys, belong to a group of three 

 genera, distinguished from all the American monkeys hitherto noticed by their long 

 tails not being prehensile. All of them have well-developed thumbs, and their 

 general form is massive. They agree with the members of the preceding group in 

 the upright profile of the face, and also in the circumstance that the front or incisor 

 teeth of the lower jaw are placed vertically. 



The douroucolis, of which a party is represented in our illustration on p. 167, 

 are distinguished from the other genera of the group by their rounded heads and 

 the enormous size of their eyes. The latter are, indeed, so large that in the dried 

 skull their sockets occupy almost its entire width, being separated from one another 

 by a mere line of bone, considerably narrower than the opening of the nostrils. 

 Another distinctive feature is the narrowness of the partition between the two 

 nostrils, which is more like that of the monkeys of the Old World than of the other 

 New World monkeys. 



The ears are short, and the hair round the eyes is arranged in a radiating 

 manner, after the fashion of the disc of feathers round the eyes of an owl. All the 

 species are of relatively small size, and of purely nocturnal habits. 



Apparently from the small size of their ears the traveller Humboldt gave them 

 the name of earless monkeys ( Aotus\ but the name nocturnal monkey (Nyctipithecus) 

 had been applied at an earlier date. We are unacquainted with the origin of the 

 name douroucoli. 



According to Mr. Bates, they are known to the inhabitants of Ega, on the 

 Upper Amazon, by the name of E-ia. 



