THE CACAJA6. 233 



THE CACAJAO. 



Pithecia melanocephala DESMAREST. 

 PLATE XXVI. 



Le Cacajao, Simla melanocephala, Humboldt and Bonpland, 

 Observations de Zoologie, i. pp. 317, 359 ; Geoff roy Saint 

 ffilaire, Annales du Museum, xix. p. 117. Saki cacajao, 

 Desmaresfs Mammalogie, p. 91. 



THIS very curious and diminutive species was also 

 discovered by Humboldt and Bonpland, and it is to 

 their description and plate that we are indebted for all 

 that is known regarding it. By the different native 

 tribes it is called as above, and also Caruiri, Mono feo, 

 Chacuto, or Mono robon. It is very rare, and a single 

 individual was only met with by those travellers in 

 an Indian hut at San Francisco Solano. It is scarcely 

 more than a foot in length, and the tail is not much 

 more than a sixth ; and its describer says " it is among 

 the Siamiris, the Sais, and Ouistitis, what the Mayot 

 of Barbary is among the long-tailed Maaiques." 



The head of the Cacajao is very round, naked, and 

 of a dull black, in its physiognomy much resembling 

 that of an old negro ; the hair on the head is directed 

 forwards ; the eyes are large and sunk, and the eye- 



