THE COAITA. 213 



our illustration is taken, was a female, at thut 

 period young, and joined to a considerable degree of 

 intelligence a mild and affectionate disposition. The 

 body is covered with long soft and silky, but strong 

 black hair, thinner oit the under parts, and without 

 any mixture of a woolly texture. The fore extremities 

 want the thumb ; the hinder are formed like the other 

 quadrumanee, but with longer fingers ; and the long 

 prehensile tail is terminated on the under side with a 

 tender and fine skin, which seems to be endowed, like 

 the hands, with the sense of touch. It makes use of 

 it to grasp any object of support, suspends itself, and 

 uses it to draw towards it any objects which are be- 

 yond the reach of its hands. F. Cuvier says they are 

 met with in large troops in the forests of Guiana and 

 Brasil ; but Humboldt says, that in all his extensive 

 travels he has never met with the true Ateles panis- t 

 cus, and that the most common species on the Cassi- 

 quiare and High Oronooko is the next animal we shall 

 mention, the Ateles Belzebub of Geoffroy, and the 

 Marimonda of Humboldt and Bonpland. These 

 naturalists describe it as also very slow in its move- 

 ments, mild but timid in disposition ; in the excess of 

 terror even biting those who caress it, and venting 

 its temporary rage in a guttural cry of ou-6. Among 

 all the monkeys with prehensile tails, Humboldt thinks 

 that this species possesses the most perfect use and 

 sensibility of it ; it can even, without turning its 

 head, introduce it into narrow chinks or rents, and 



