THE SPIDER MONKEY. 161 



which the spider monkeys managed to throw 

 down upon his party large branches of trees, so 

 many of them, indeed, that it was dangerous to 

 pass beneath. A monkey first selected a dead 

 branch in a convenient position, then, grasping 

 with feet and tail a stout living branch near 

 the former, he braced himself and pushed with 

 his hands against the dead branch, using all his 

 force, and generally succeeding in splitting it 

 off, when it fell with a crash to the ground. 



As to their perseverance, Waterton speaks of 

 finding cases containing Brazil nuts, which are 

 hard round objects somewhat larger than a 

 croquet-ball and very hard to break, which the 

 monkeys had worn smooth by the hands, in their 

 efforts to break them open. They knew very 

 well what was inside, for their fingers had been 

 thrust through the small opening in the top, and 

 their nails had picked and broken the corners of 

 the nuts tightly packed away within. He knew 

 it was the work of the monkeys, for he came 

 upon them in the very act of pounding the cases 

 on branches and on fallen tree-trunks, and one 

 that he secured was dropped, in his haste to 

 get away, by an unfortunate creature who had 

 already spent many hours upon it. It was most 

 curious, says the writer, to hear the pounding 

 noise made by a party of spider-monkeys trying 

 to break these hard cases. 



