184 
ORDER QUADRUMANA.— GENUS NYCTIPITHECUS. 
Of all the animals of its kind, the Capuchin Fox-tail is that one whose 
features most resemble those of Man. His eyes have an expression of 
melancholy, not free from ferocity. As the chin is hid under his bushy 
heard, the facial line appears larger than it really is. He is a strong ani- 
mal, agile, ferocious, and scarcely tameable. When irritated, he starts back 
on his hind feet, grinds his teeth, pulls the end of his beard, and leaps with 
threatening gestures around his assailant. In the fits of his ire 1 have 
often seen him, says Humboldt, fix his teeth deep in a wooden plank. He 
generally maintains a sullen sadness, which is interrupted only at the sight 
of some favourite food. He drinks but seldom, and in a way which differs 
remarkably from the other American Monkeys, who raise the cup pre- 
sented to them to the lip. The Capuchin, on the contrary, drinks from 
the hollow of his hand, at the same time turning his head to a side. This 
is a tedious operation, which he performs with either hand, and only 
when he imagines he is unobserved. He becomes quite furious when 
any one wets his beard ; and it would appear that it is to avoid this an- 
noyance that he resorts to his peculiar mode of drinking. 
These Monkeys do not live in troops, but in pairs only, in the forest. 
They are found in the vast deserts in the High Orinoco, to the south and 
east of the Cataracts, and appear to be unknown in most of the neigh- 
bouring provinces. The Priest Juan Gonzalis, who was intimately ac- 
quainted with the locality they frequent, informed Baron Humboldt that 
the native Indians devour these animals in great numbers at certain sea- 
sons of the year. 
BOtJBTFOL SPECIES. 
1. PiTHEciA INUSTA (Spix, Sim- et Vespert. Bras. pi. 10) is suspected 
by Temminck to be identical with P. hirsuta. It is about one-third 
smaller, and the head is wholly ferrugineous. 
2. SiMiA Sagulata, The Jacketed Monkey (Traill, in the Memoirs of 
the Wernerian Society, vol. iii.) is conjectured by Fischer to be a Pithecia 
Satanas. 
To this Catalogue we have nothing to add, except that our examina- 
tion inclines us to agree in the justness of the suspicions expressed by 
Temminck and Fischer. 
IMAGINARY SPECIES. 
1 . P. ocHEOCEPHALA (Kuhl, Beitp.) is the female or young of P. leu- 
cocephala. 
2. P. RUPiBARBATA (Kuhl and Desm.) is absolutely identical with P. 
rufiventer. This is the Simia Pithecia of Linnaeus. 
3. P. capillamentosa of Spix is merely a duplicate of P. rufiventer. 
4. Brachyuros IsRAELiTA of Spix is the young of P. Satanas. 
GENUS VIII. NYCTIPITHECUS.— NIGHT-MONKEYS. 
Syn. Les Nocthores. — F. Cuv. Hist Mam. — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 104. 
Aotus. — Illig. Prodr. 
NYCTIPITHECUS. — Spix, Sim. et Vespert. Bras. 
GENERIC CHARACTERS. 
The Head round and broad. The Muzzle short. The Facial 
Angle about 60°. 
The Eyes very large and approximated. The Ears very small. 
The Nails short. Habits nocturnal. 
The Tail longer than the body. 
Inhabit Guiana and Brazil. 
To the Night-Monkeys Illiger has very improperly assigned the 
generic term Aotus (Earless). They differ from the other Sagoins, 
merely by their large nocturnal eyes, and their ears are partly con- 
cealed under the hair. 
All these animals come from Guiana or Brazil. 
It was the Baron Humboldt who proposed the establishment of this genus 
for the arrangement of the Douroucouli, which he discovered in the forests 
of the Orinoco. He designated it Aotes (Jiurai), earless ; but as this was 
a character which was inapplicable to the animal, Spix substituted the 
appellation Nyctipithecus (Night- Monkey), which, taken from one of its 
most striking characteristics, has been generally adopted. 
The generic characters are distinctly marked. The head is round and 
very broad ; the muzzle is short ; the eyes nocturnal, very large, and near 
each other ; the ears are very small ; the tail is longer than the body, not 
prehensile, covered with hair ; each foot has five toes, and the nails are 
flat. In all these particulars, the Nyctipitheci have a strong resemblance 
to the Loris of the ancient Continent. For a long time the animal intro, 
duced by Humboldt was the only species of the genus; lately, two 
more have been added by Spix, who thinks it highly probable there are 
others. 
1. NYCTIPITHECUS TRIVIRGATUS HUMBOLDTS 
NIGHT-MONKEY. 
Syn. Le Douroucouli Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 104. 
Aotus Humboldtii Illig. Prodr. — Seliinz. Thierr. 
Aotus trtvirgata Geoff. Ann. Mus. XIX. 
Simia trivirgata ( Douroucouu) Humb. Obs. Zool. p. 307 and 358. 
Icon. Humb. Obs. Zool. pi. 28. 
Douroucouli (fcm.) — F. Cuv. et Geoff. Hist. Mara. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
The Hair grey, mixed with white, a brown band along the back. 
The Face blackish. Hands white. 
Inhabits Guiana. 
The Baron Humboldt, who discovered this animal, observes that it is 
the most remarkable he had met in Guiana. It differs from its con- 
geners not only in the form of its teeth and ears, but still more in its 
habits, the size of its eyes, and iu'the whole of its physiognomy, which 
very much resembles one of the Loris (Stenops) of the Old World. It is 
strikingly characterized by its head being cat-like, by its large yellow eyes, 
which cannot support the light ; by the smallness of the external ear, and 
by its unreprelipusile tail being much longer than its body. 
This Night-Monkey is generally of a grey colour mixed with white, 
with a brownish line rnrining along the hack; the lower parts of the body 
have an orange yellow tint. The head, and especially the forehead, is 
marked with three black streaks which descend to- the eye. The face is 
covered witli blackish hair ; the beautifully yellow eyes are of an enor- 
mous size when compared with the magnitude of the animal. The mouth 
is surrounded with white and shoit bristles. The hands and soles of the 
feet are white. The tail, which exceeds the length of the body by about 
a half, is of the same colour as the back, and tipt with black. The whole 
fur is soft and pleasant to the touch, and is used by the natives for Vi. 
bacco-pouches and such like purjioses. M. Geoffroy-St-Hilaire gives the 
vertebral as follows : cervical 7 ; dorsal 14 ; lumbar 9 ; sacral 2 ; coccy- 
geal 18. (Cours d’Hist. Nat. in loco.) 
The Douroucouli sleeps throughout the whole day, and is much an- 
noyed by the light. Hence it retires into some shady corner, or into the 
hollow of a tree. If roused during the day, it is not only sad, but lethar- 
gic. It often sits like a Dog, with its back bent, the four feet collected 
under it, and its head resting on the fore paws. It is gentle during the 
day-time, and may be handled with impunity. It is, however, as active 
during the night, as it is stupid during the day. Its vision now improves, 
and it preys upon Birds, and especially Insects. When in New Barcel- 
lona, I used, says Humboldt, to keep one in my bed-room, and it unceas- 
ingly vaulted about, and made a great noise. It also eats vegetables, 
especially sugar-cane, dates, and almonds, and flies, which it catches with 
great address. Upon the whole, however, it eats but little, and it has 
been observed not to drink for twenty or thirty days. 
According to Humboldt, it is exceedingly difficult to tame this Monkey. 
At all events, says the Baron, my companion only snapt at all the caresses 
bestowed upon him. He puffed like a Cat, and violently struck with his 
claws. M. F. Cuvier’s experience, however, on this (mint, was differ- 
ent ; the individual wliich he possessed, a female, being very gentle. Its 
night-cry (rnuh, muh) resembles that of the Jaguar, and its strength is 
quite extraordinary for so small an animal. It has also other cries, which 
are very peculiar. 
2. NYCTIPITHECUS FELINUS.—CAT-FACED NIGHT-MONKEY. 
Syn. Nyctipithecus felinus (Le Singe-de-nuit a face-de-ehat). — Spix, p. 25. 
— Loss, in Diet. Class. XV. 
Cebus felinus — Fisch. Syn. Mam. 
Icon. Spix, Sira, et Vespert. Bras. pi. 18 (fem.) 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
The Hair ash-coloured above, reddish beneath. 
The Face and Hands white. The Male has a beard. Tail longer 
than the body. 
Inhabits Para. 
Our acquaintance with this and the succeeding species, as already 
■stated, we owe to Spix, who has given figures of both. This Night- Mon- 
key is cat-faced ; its visage is lean, its mouth large, and its eyes red and 
very large. The greater part of the face is white. The body is slender. 
The hair rising from the forehead and cheeks is black, and inclines back- 
wards. The ears are conspicuous, oblong, naked, clad only at their mar- 
gins. The male has a beard. The fur above is close, ash-coloured ; 
beneath, reddish. The tail is somewhat larger than the body, and chiefly 
black. 
Spix procured this animal in Para, and kept it long in domestication. 
It fed upon rice. 
