630 Recent Literature, [June, 
habits and distribution of the mammals. For the first time we have 
definite information regarding the monkeys of Central America 
and Mexico, comprising, as they do, perhaps, the most striking 
feature ofthe region under consideration. There are eleven species, 
representing two: families, and six out of ten genera of American 
monkeys in all. The existence of monkeys north of the Isthmus 
of Panama was long overlooked by zoologists, though recorded 
by several of the older zoologists, notably Dampier $ 
1729). Apparently the species which extends farthest north is the 
Mexican spider monkey (Ateles vellerosus Gray); it occurs in 
Guatemala from coast to. coast, In Mexico it has not been found, 
according to Reichardt, north of a point in Vera Cruz, near the 
volcano of Orizaba, where it is common, living in small troops 
in the deep ravines up to an elevation of 2000 feet above the sea. 
Reinhardt “also found it at a height of 4000 feet in the eastern 
parts of Oaxaca, but never on the Pacific slope of the Cordillera 
in that State; and he believed that monkeys were not to be found 
on the western coast further north than Tehauntepec.” 
We are afforded fresh data concerning the distribution of the 
Carnivora; the opinion of Dr. V. Frantzius is quoted that the 
coyote is not indigenous to this region, but spread through Cen- 
tral America subsequent to the Spanish conquest. “ He con- 
siders it improbable that they should have existed among the 
thick population of the semi-civilized natives who then occupied 
the western slopes, and thinks that their invasion may have be 
coincident with that of the European cattle, which were intro- 
duced in the first decade of the sixteenth century.” A data 
by Mrs. Salvin of a specimen of common skunk (Mephitis mipi. 
tica) in the museum of Guatemala is the only positive ia 
the range of this species into Guatemala, as it was not represe 
in Messrs. Godman and Salvin’s collections. sera 
he two Central American tapirs are discussed with consi 
ble detail; although the adult of Baird’s tapir was not discov ae 
th species are figured and their distribution partly ane 
We are also treated to an excellent colored illustration still | 
manatee, which is common on the eastern coast; Dampier # 
mains the best authority as to its mode of life. The EE 
of peccary are illustrated, and interesting accounts of pags E 
are given ; the collared peccary ranging from “ 36° no o Negro 
on the Red river of Arkansas, and as far south as the B y 
of Patagonia.” In Guatemala “the collared peccary 'S E i the 
. $ è % rr : h forest, but in 
seen in parties of five or six individuals in t e ite-lipped 
early morning they trespass into the clearings.’ The We 
peccary goes in large droves in Guatemala as Y : 
Rica, where they abound most in “the thick prime hi her-lying J 
the warmer lowlands,” but is also met with in the hig k a 
mountain woods. ahia Me 
~ The antelope is not found south of Sonora and Chih a 
