SAIMIRI 307 



GENUS SAIMIRI. SQUIRREL MONKEYS. 



*■• 2— 2> *■'• 1^1 > "• 3^3 > "*■' 3—3 * 



SAIMIRI Voigt, Cuvier's Thierreich, I, 1831, p. 95. Type Simla 

 sciurea Linnaeus. 

 Chrysothrix Kaup, Das Thierr., I; 1835, p. 50, fig. 

 Pithesciurus Less., Spec. Mamm., 1840, pp. 116, 157-160. 

 Saimiris Geoff., Compt. Rend., Paris, XVI, 1843, p. 1151. 



Head rounded; eyes large, approximate; ears large; septum of 

 nose broad ; tail long, tufted at tip, non-prehensile ; thumbs very short. 

 Skull elongate, braincase large, arched, prolonged posteriorly; facial 

 portion small; middle upper incisors larger than outer, canines long, 

 pointed ; partitions between orbits and nostrils thin, membranaceous. 



The Squirrel Monkeys are small animals, ranging from Nicaragua 

 through the valley of the Amazon into Bolivia and Peru, and with their 

 brilliant coloring are perhaps the most beautiful of their tribe. They 

 are strictly arboreal, and as Bates remarks, are the most common 

 of the ordinary monkeys of the American forests. By some writers 

 they have been considered as closely related to the nocturnal monkeys, 

 but the relationship is one caused more by environment and conse- 

 quently similar methods of life than through their organization, and it 

 may therefore be regarded in the light of being artificial. They possess 

 large eyes, small ears, and a small inquisitive face, but they would 

 probably make very unsuccessful hunters by night, as their vision 

 is only adapted for daylight. Six species and two subspecies are 

 now recognized, with fairly distinctive characters. It has been found 

 necessary to make certain changes in the nomenclature of some forms 

 either on account of previous names having been overlooked by some 

 of the earlier writers, or the law of priority disregarded. There is 

 little or no change in the appearance of the sexes, or between old and 

 young individuals, and these causes of frequent errors in other groups 

 being non-existent, the synonymy of the various forms is happily brief. 



LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES. 



1758. Llnnceus, Systema Natures. 



Under Simla, in which genus Linnaeus placed all species of 



