SPIDER MONKEYS 21 



incessantly during the night. "Nothing", says a well-known tra- 

 veller, "can sound more dreadful than their nocturnal howlings. 

 While lying in your hammock in these gloomy and immeasurable 

 wilds, you hear them howling at intervals from eleven o'clock at 

 night till daybreak. You would suppose that half the wild beasts 



n^-^-^i^'F^ 



Red Howling Monkeys 



of the forest were collecting for the work of carnage. Now it is 

 the tremendous roar of the jaguar as he springs on his prey; now 

 it changes to his deep-toned growlings as he is pressed on all sides 

 by superior force; and now you hear his last dying moan beneath 

 a mortal wound." 



It is said that these strange cries can be plainly heard at a 

 distance of more than two miles. They are uttered principally by 

 the male animals, which are provided with special sound arrange- 

 ments at the base of the tongue and in the throat. 



