THE BRACHYURE M OH KEY. 
195 
catch it in his arms when it falls exhausted. A pinch of salt (the antidote to the poison) is then put 
in its mouth, and the creature revives. The species is rare, even to the limited district which it 
inhabits. Senikor Clirysostomo sent six of his most skilful Indians, who were absent three weeks before 
they obtained the twelve specimens already noticed. When an independent hunter obtains one, a very 
high price (thirty or forty milreis — £3 7s. to £4 13s.) is asked, these Monkeys being in great demand 
for presents to persons of influence down the river. Adult Uakaries caught in the way just described 
very rarely become tame. They are peevish and sulky, resisting all attempts to coax them, and biting 
any one who ventures within reach. They have no particular cry, even when in their native woods. 
In captivity they are quite silent. In the course of a few days, or weeks, if not very carefully attended 
to, they fall into a listless condition, refuse food, and die. Many of them succumb to a disease which, 
I supposed from the symptoms, to be inflammation of the chest or lungs. The one which I kept as a 
pet died of this disorder after I had had it about three weeks. It lost its appetite in a very few days, 
although kept in an airy verandah. Its coat, which was originally long, smooth, and glossy, became 
■dingy and ragged, like that of the specimens seen in museums ; and the bright scarlet colour of its face 
changed to a duller hue. This colour, in health, is spread over the features up to the roots of the hair on 
the forehead and temples, and down to the neck, including the flabby cheeks, which hang down below 
the jaws. The animal in this condition looks, at a short distance, as though some one had laid a thick 
coat of red paint on its countenance. The death of my pet was slow ; during the last twenty-four hours 
it lay prostrate, breathing quickly, its chest strongly heaving. The colour of its face grew gradually 
paler, but was still red when it expired. As the hue did not quite disappear until two or three horn's 
after the animal was quite dead, I judged that it was not exclusively due to the blood, but partly to a 
pigment beneath the skin, which would probably retain its colour a short time after the circulation had 
ceased. After seeing much of the morose disposition of the Uakari, I was not a little surprised one day 
at a friend’s house to find an extremely lively and familiar individual of this species. It ran from an 
inner chamber straight towards me after I had sat down on a chair, climbed my legs, and nestled in my 
lap, turning round and looking up with the usual Monkey’s grin after it had made itself comfortable. 
It was a young animal, which had been taken when its mother was shot with a poisoned arrow. Its 
teeth were incomplete, and the face was pale and mottled, the glowing scarlet hue not supervening in 
these animals before mature age; it had also a few long black hairs on the eyebrows and lips. The 
frisky little fellow had been reared in the house amongst the children, and allowed to run about freely, 
and took its meals with the rest of the household. There are few animals which the Brazilians of these 
villages have not succeeded in taming. I have even seen young Jaguars running loose about a house, 
and treated as pets. The animals that I had rarely became familiar, however long they might remain 
in my possession, a circumstance due, no doubt, to their being kept always tied up. The Uakari is one 
of the many species of animals which are classified by the Brazilians as i mortal,’ or of delicate consti- 
tution, in contradistinction to those which are ‘ duro,’ or hardy. A large proportion of the specimens 
sent from Ega die before arriving at Para, and scarcely one in a dozen succeeds in reaching Bio Janeiro 
alive. It appears, nevertheless, that an individual has once been brought in a living state to England, 
for Dr. Gray relates that one was exhibited in the gardens of the Zoological Society in 1841). The 
difficulty it has of accommodating itself to changed conditions probably has some connection with the 
very limited range or confined sphere of life of the species in its natural state, its native home being an 
area of swampy woods, not more than about sixty square miles in extent, although no permanent barrier 
exists to check its dispersal, except towards the south, over a much wider space. When 1 descended 
the river in 1859 we had with us a tame adult Uakari, which was allowed to ramble about the vessel, 
a large schooner. When w T e reached the mouth of the Bio Negro we had to wait four days, whilst the 
Custom-house officials at Barra, ten miles distant, made out the passports for our crew, and during this 
time the schooner lay close to the shore, with its bowsprit secured to the trees on the bank. Well, one 
morning Scarlet-face was missing, having made his escape into the forest. Two men were sent in search 
of him, but returned, after several hours’ absence, without having caught sight of the runaway. We 
gave up the Monkey for lost, until the following day, when he re-appeared on the skirts of the forest, 
and marched quietly down the bowsprit to his usual place on deck. He had evidently found the forests 
of the Bio Negro very different from those of the delta lands of the Japura, and preferred captivity 
to freedom in a place that was so uncongenial to him.” 
