HOWLING MONKEYS. 
81 
often noticed by travellers, and whose reverberating cries rend tlieir ears. Little chance is 
there that the Howling Monkeys should ever fade from the memory of any one who has once 
suffered an unwilling martyrdom from their mournful yells. 
Few animals have deserved the name which they bear so well as the Howling Monkeys. 
Their horrid yells are so loud, that they can be heard plainly although the animals which pro- 
duce them are more than a mile distant ; and the sounds that issue from their curiously formed 
throats are strangely simulative of the most discordant outcries of various other animals — the 
jaguar being one of the most favorite subjects for imitation. Throughout the entire night their 
dismal ululations resound, persecuting the ears of the involuntarily wakeful traveller with their 
HOWLING MONKEYS . — Mycetes seniculus. 
oppressive pertinacity, and driving far from his wearied senses the slumber which he courts, 
but courts in vain. As if to give greater energy to the performance, and to worry their neigh- 
bors as much as possible, the Araguatos have a fashion of holding conversations, in which 
each member does his best to overpower the rest. 
A similar custom is in vogue with many of the African and Asiatic monkeys, but with 
this difference. The above-mentioned animals certainly lift up their voices together, but then, 
each individual appears to be talking on his own account, so that the sound, although it is 
sufficiently loud to affect a listener’s ears most unpleasantly, is disjointed and undecided. 
But the Howlers give forth their cries with a consentaneous accord, that appears to be the 
result of discipline rather than of instinct alone. 
Indeed, the natives assert that in each company, one monkey takes the lead, and acting as 
toast-master, or as conductor of an orchestra, gives a signal which is followed by the rest of 
the band. The result of the combined voices of these stentorian animals may be imagined. 
