HABITS OF CAPUCHIN MONKEYS 
in color, that nobody knows how many true species really exist. 
The body is rather stout; the head round and the muzzle short, 
giving a miniature and somewhat pathetic caricature of the 
human countenance; the hair is not woolly, and it 
stands up over the forehead like a monk’s cowl, but 
sometimes forms a crest; and the tail is long and prehensile, 
but not naked on the under side of the end. The color is 
usually a variable dull brown, but one is reddish, and several 
have more or less white about the shoulders. 
These monkeys go in small, orderly troops, led in single file by 
an old male and remain mostly in tall trees, sometimes one hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the ground. Bates,” whose “Naturalist 
on the Amazons” is a storehouse of information on these and 
other animals of that region, describes how, when the foremost of 
the flock reaches the outermost branch of a tall tree, he springs 
forth into the air without a moment’s hesitation, and alights 
on the dome of yielding foliage belonging to the neighboring 
tree, maybe fifty feet beneath, all the rest following his ex- 
ample. ‘They grasp, on falling, with hands and tail, right 
themselves in a moment, and then away they go along branch 
and bough to the next tree.” A Chilean species will hang by 
the tail from a branch at a dizzy height, balance itself with all 
four limbs stretched out, then drop twenty or thirty feet and 
stop by seizing another branch with its tail. They usually 
have a settled sleeping-place, whence they issue every morn- 
ing to explore the near-by trees for fruits, tender shoots, in- 
sects, eggs, young birds, and other edibles; and go and come 
by regular routes through the woods. Bananas are their main- 
stay, but oranges are a favorite delicacy, and these are opened 
by tearing the rind, too bitter for their taste, with the nails, 
and then scooping out the pulp with the forefinger. Their 
fondness of sweets is taken advantage of by the forest people 
to entrap them. The pulp of a gourd is dug out through a 
small hole, sugar is placed inside, and the trap is set out and 
39 
Capuchins. 
