556 
MAMMALIA. 
be full of grace and gentleness, and that age does not modify these 
qualities. 
The American Monkeys are divided into two sections, according 
as they possess a prehensile or non-prehensile tail. 
Tribe of Monkeys with Prehensile Tails. — The tribe of 
Monkeys with prehensile tails includes the genera Howler, 
Lagothrix, Eriodes, Ateles, and Sapajous. 
Genus Howler . — The Howlers, called also Stentors and Alouates 
(Fig 245), owe their name to the hoarse, deep-volumed cries they 
utter at various periods during the day. Scarcely two feet in 
Fig. 245. — Ursine Howlers ( Mycetes ursinus). 
height, these Monkeys have the most powerful voices of any 
known animal. When gathered in troops they make the great 
forests re-echo again with their sonorous noise, and produce a 
tumult that carries terror into the soul of the bravest. The 
traveller who for the first time traverses these forests, expects 
every moment to see a band of howling demons dancing an 
infernal saraband. But soon the hubbub ceases, and nature, lately 
so troubled, regains her usual stillness. 
It is at sunrise and sunset, and sometimes also at the approach 
of storms, that the Howling Monkeys lend to the echoes their 
discordant voices. The traveller Azara compares their clamour 
to the creaking of a great multitude of carts with badly- greased 
