9 o 



THE ARAGUATO. 



it is remarkable, that once when she was ill, her jetty coat became interspersed with 

 hairs of a red tint, imparting an unpleasant rusty hue to her furry mantle. 



She is expected to reach England in the course of the summer, and it may chance 

 that the public will one day have the opportunity of studying the biography of Sally the 

 spider monkey. 



THE ANIMAL which is engraved on the next page, is an example of the celebrated 

 group of HOWLING MONKEYS, or ALOUATTES as they are termed by some naturalists, 

 whose strange customs have been so often noticed by travellers, and whose reverberating 

 cries rend their ears. Little chance is there that the Howling Monkeys should ever fade 

 from the memory of any one who has once suffered an unwilling martyrdom from their 

 mournful yells. 



Several species of Howling Monkeys are known to science, of which the ARAGUATO 

 as it is called in its own land, or the URSINE HOWLER as it is popularly named in this 

 country, is, perhaps, the commonest and most conspicuous. It is larger than any of the 

 New World monkeys which have hitherto been noticed ; its length being very 

 nearly three feet when it is fully grown, and the tail reaching to even a greater 

 length. 



The color of the fur is a rich reddish-brown, or rather bay, enlivened by a golden 

 lustre when a brighter ray of light than usual plays over its surface. The beard which 

 so thickly decorates the chin, throat, and neck, is of a deeper color than that of the 

 body. 



Few animals have deserved the name which they bear so well as the Howling 

 Monkeys. Their horrid yells are so loud, that they can be heard plainly although the 

 animals which produce them are more than a mile distant ; and the sounds that issue from 

 their curiously-formed throats are strangely simulative of the most discordant outcries 

 of various other animals the jaguar being one of the most favorite subjects for im- 

 itation. Throughout the entire night their dismal ululations resound, persecuting the 

 ears of the involuntarily wakeful traveller with their oppressive pertinacity, and driving 

 far from his wearied senses the slumber which he courts, but courts in vain. As if to 

 give greater energy to the performance, and to worry their neighbors as much as pos- 

 sible, the Araguatos have a fashion of holding conversations, in which each member 

 does his best to overpower the rest. 



A similar custom is in vogue with many of the African and Asiatic monkeys, but 

 with this difference. The above-mentioned animals certainly lift up their voices to- 

 gether, but then, each individual appears to be talking on his own account, so that the 

 sound, although it is sufficiently loud to affect a listener's ears most unpleasantly, is 

 disjointed and undecided. 



But the Howlers give forth their cries with a consentaneous accord, that appears to 

 be the result of discipline rather than of instinct alone. 



Indeed, the natives assert that in each company, one monkey takes the lead, and 

 acting as toast-master, or as conductor of an orchestra, gives a signal which is followed 

 by the rest of the band. The result of the combined voices of these stentorian animals 

 may be imagined. And when the effect of this melancholy and not at all musical inter- 

 mittent bellow is heightened by the silence of night and the darkness that hangs over 

 the midnight hours in the dense forests, it may easily be supposed, that but little sleep 

 would visit the eyes of one who had not served an apprenticeship to the unearthly sounds 

 that fill the night air of these regions. 



In order that an animal of so limited a size should be enabled to produce sounds of 

 such intensity and volume, a peculiar structure of the vocal organs is necessary. 



The instrument by means of which the Howlers make night dismal with their 

 funestral wailings, is found to be the " hyoid bone," a portion of the form which is very 

 slightly developed in man, but very largely in these monkeys. In man, the bone in 

 question gives support to the tongue, and is attached to numerous muscles of the neck. 

 In the Howling Monkeys it takes a wider range of duty, and, by a curious modification 

 of structure, forms a bony drum which communicates with the windpipe and gives to 

 the voice that powerful resonance, which has made the Alouattes famous. 



It is said by those who have been able to watch the habits of these creatures, that the 



