280 ALOUATTA 



Cauca Valley skull. In selecting his type Dr. Allen had quite over- 

 looked the abnormal position of these last molars. The other cranial 

 characters mentioned by Dr. Allen are mainly individual variations 

 which are readily perceived in any considerable series of skulls of this 

 species, but which, as I have already said, if judged by themselves 

 without ample material for comparison might be considered as having 

 specific or racial value. Any form, however, established upon these 

 variations would create confusion and prove a stumbling block to all 

 investigators. 



In the table of measurements given by Dr. Allen in his paper, the 

 average of the Cauca Valley specimens, shows their skulls to be slightly 

 smaller, but if as many of them had been available as of the other series 

 from Santa Marta, sixteen instead of eight, the probability would be, 

 if the individuals were of a similar age, that the average would show 

 little if any difference between the crania from the two localities. 



As Linnaeus' type came from Cartagena, these specimens from 

 Colombia would undoubtedly represent the typical style of the species. 



The specimen named and figured by Spix as Mycetes stramineus 

 is in the Munich Museum. It is in poor condition, so changed by the 

 accumulation of nearly a century's dust that its original color is indis- 

 tinguishable. It seems to have been of a general uniform color, now 

 pale straw yellow where a few spots of that color can be detected in 

 various parts. The limbs and tail would appear to have been about the 

 same color as the body ; the beard and sides of face alone being a dark 

 brownish. Spix gives the locality of this example as the forest 

 between the Rio Negro and the Solimoens River near the boundaries 

 of Peru. There is only one specimen in the Museum. This forest also 

 extends on the eastern border of Colombia, and it is not improbable 

 that A. seniculus is found there, ranging also to the borders of Peru. 



Bates, (1. c.) speaks of a Howler from the Madeira River, which 

 he attributes to the Mycetes stramineus Geoff., but which is possibly 

 the A. seniculus Humb., as follows: "The only interesting mam- 

 malian animal which I saw at Villa Nova was a monkey of a species 

 new to me; it was not however a native of the district, having been 

 brought by a trader from the river Madeira, a few miles above Borda. 

 It was a howler, probably the Mycetes stramineus Geoffroy St. Hilaire. 

 The howlers are the only kinds of Monkey which the natives have not 

 succeeded in taming. They are often caught but they do not survive 

 captivity many weeks. The one of which I am speaking was not quite 

 full grown. It measured sixteen inches in length, exclusive of the tail ; 

 the whole body was covered with rather long and shining dingy 



