Monkeys. 313 



are the largest of American monkeys, but are not so tall 

 as the Coaitas. They are found west of Manaos. They 

 have more human features than the other monkeys, and, 

 with their woolly gray fur, resemble an old negro. There 

 are three kinds of howlers {Mycetes) — the red or mono- 

 colorado of Humboldt, the black, and the M. heehebub, 

 found only near Para. The forest is full of these surly, 

 untamable guaribas, as the natives call them. They are 

 gifted with a voice of tremendous power and volume, with 

 which they make night and day hideous. They represent 

 the baboons of the Old World in disposition and facial 

 angle (30°), and the gibbons in their yells and gregarious 

 habits.* The Sapajous (6fe^».«) are distributed throughout 

 Brazil, and have the reputation of being the most mis- 

 chievous monkeys in the country. On the west coast of 

 South America there are at least three or four species of 

 monkeys, among them a black howler and a Cebtcs ca^u- 

 cinus. The Coitas, or spider-monkeys, are the highest of 

 American quadrumana. They are slender-legged, slug- 

 gish, and thumbless, with a most perfectly prehensile tail, 

 terminating in a naked palm, which answers for a fifth 

 hand. Tlie Indians say they walk under the limbs like 

 the sloth. They are the most common pets in Brazil, but 

 they refuse to breed in captivity. Both Coitas and Ba- 

 rigudos are much perseciited for their flesh, which is high- 

 ly esteemed by the Indians. 



Mr. Bates has called our attention to the arboreal char- 

 acter of a large share of the animals in the Amazonian 

 forest. All the monkeys and bats are climbers, and live 

 in the trees. Nearly all the carnivores are feline, and are 

 therefore tree-mounters, though they lead a terrestrial life. 

 The plantigrade Cercoleptes has a long tail, and is entirely 

 arboreal. Of the edentates, the sloth can do nothing on 



* Riitimeyev has found a fossil howler in the Swiss Jura — middle eocene. 



