324 ANIMALS OF EGA. Chap. Y. 
meal mixed with treacle. It became tame in a very 
short time, allowing itself to be caressed, but making a 
distinction in the degree of confidence it showed between 
myself and strangers. My pet was unfortunately killed 
by a neighbour's dog, which entered the room where it 
was kept. The animal is so difficult to obtain alive, its 
place of retreat in the daj-time not being known to the 
natives, that I was unable to procure a second living 
specimen. 
As I shall not have occasion again to enter on the 
subject of monkeys, a few general remarks will be here 
in place, as a summary of my observations on this im- 
portant order of animals in the Amazons region. The 
total number of species of monkeys which I found 
inhabiting the margins of the Upper and Lower Ama- 
zons, was thirty-eight. They belonged to twelve 
different genera, forming two distinct families, the num- 
ber of genera and families, here as well as in other 
orders of animals or plants, expressing roughly the 
amount of diversity existing with regard to forms. All 
the New World genera of apes, except one (Eriodes, 
closely allied to the Coaitas, but having claw-shaped nails 
to the fingers), are represented in the Amazons region. 
With these ample materials before us, let us draw a 
comparison between the monkeys of the new continent, 
and their kindred of the Old World. It seems highly 
probable that the larger land areas, both continents and 
islands, on the surface of our globe, became separated 
pretty nearly as they now are, soon after the first forms 
of this group of animals came into existence : it will 
