72 ROYAL MONKEY. 



prehensile. The Royal Monkey is said to be rare 

 in Brasil, but very common in Cayenne. On the 

 contrary, the former species is very common in 

 Brasil, but is not found in Guiana. Both species 

 have the same voice and manners*. 



* The following is a description given by an observer who had 

 seen and kept these animals at Cayenne : 



" The Allouates, or Howlers, inhabit the moist forests, in the 

 neighbourhood of waters or marshes. They are commonly found 

 in the woody islets of large flooded savannahs, and never on the 

 mountains of the interior of Guiana. They go in small numbers, 

 often in pairs, and sometimes singly. The cry, or rather horrible 

 rattling scream, which they make, may well inspire terror ; and 

 seems as if the forests contained the united howlings of all its sa- 

 vage inhabitants together. It is commonly in the morning and 

 evening that they make this clamour : they also repeat it in the 

 course of the day, and sometimes in the night. The sound is so 

 strong and varied, that one often imagines it produced by several 

 of the animals at once, and is surprised to find only two or three, 

 and sometimes only one, The Allouate seldom lives long in a 

 state of captivity : it in a manner loses its voice, or at least does not 

 exert it in the same manner as when wild. The male is larger 

 than the female, which latter always carries her young on her 

 back. 



" Nothing is more difficult than to kill one of these animals. 

 It is necessary to fire several times in order to succeed, and as long 

 as the least life remains, and sometimes even after death, they re- 

 main clinging to the branches by the hands and tail. The sports- 

 man is often chagrined at having lost his time and ammunition for 

 such wretched game 5 for, in spite of the testimony of some tra- 

 vellers, the flesh is not at all good} it is almost always excessively 

 tough, and is, therefore, excluded from all tables : it is merely the 

 want of other food that can recommend it to needy inhabitants 

 and travellers." 



A figure of this species is given in the supplement to BufFon, 

 as well as of the Preacher Monkey, but that of the latter seems not 

 of equal authenticity with the former or red species. 



