22 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



be SO very similar in their general manners to each other, 

 that we shall here condense what has been written upon 

 them by travellers. Like most other monkeys, they 

 are awkward and decrepit upon the ground ; but the 

 moment they begin climbing, their wonderful activity 

 and celerity becomes apparent ; they leap with perfect 

 ease from the loftiest overhanging branches of one tree 

 upon those of another, and hang suspended in air by 

 their tail alone, from twigs which the spectator would 

 imagine could scarcely sustain their weight. The 

 social principle in them appears to be very strong ; they 

 live in numerous troops, and all unite in one common 

 defence at the moment of danger. In those immense 

 and almost boundless forests, which are rarely trodden by 

 the foot of man, the howling monkeys are said to be so 

 fearless of his presence, as to pelt the intruder with 

 branches of trees. They seem to do this without anger, 

 and merely to drive away an object to the sight of which 

 they have not been accustomed. When hunted, and 

 one of their party is wounded, the rest spring to the top- 

 most branches, from which they send forth the most 

 piteous cries : nor is the behaviour of the wounded in- 

 dividual less touching ; he puts his finger to the wound, 

 and looks steadily at the flowing life-blood, until con- 

 sciousness is lost in death ; even then the hunter very 

 frequently loses his victim ; since its prehensile tail is 

 generally coiled round some branch, from which, by 

 its peculiar organisation, it does not loosen, even after 

 life has quitted the body. This member, indeed, consti- 

 tutes a particular feature in the structure of the howl- 

 ing monkeys generally, and serves at once to distinguish 

 them from all those of the Old World : it is always long; 

 but that of the Coaita howling monkey (Ate/es panisciis) 

 is more than two feet long, or nearly twice the length of 

 the body. Its use to this, and to all the species gene- 

 rally, is most important ; since it gives a support and se- 

 curity to the exertions of all the other limbs : it is con- 

 stantly brought into action with them, being entwined 

 round the object nearest to the animal ; thus acting as 



