148 
APES AND MONKEYS. 
The headquarters of the American monkeys are the great forest-regions of the 
Lower Amazon Valley, known as the Selvas; although they are also abundant in 
many other parts of Brazil, and likewise in the Orinoco Valley in Venezuela. All 
these animals are truly tropical and subtropical, although they extend to a longer 
distance on the south of the equator than they do on the north. To the northward, 
indeed, it appears that monkeys do not extend beyond the Tropic of Cancer in the 
southern half of Mexico; whereas in South America they are known to range as 
far as the Rio Grande do Sul, in latitude 30°. 
In the vast forests of South America, monkeys make their presence known by 
their loud cries much more than in any other part of the world, unless, indeed, 
it be those parts of the Oriental region inhabited by the gibbons. The best 
description extant of the nocturnal noises of the American forests is that given 
by Humboldt. “ After eleven o’clock,” writes the great German traveller and 
philosopher, “ such a noise began in the contiguous forest, that for the remainder 
of the night all sleep was impossible. The wild cries of the animals rang through 
the woods. Among the many voices that resounded together, the Indians could 
only recognise those which, after short pauses, were heard singly. There was the 
monotonous, plaintive cry of the aluates [howling monkeys], the whining, flute-like 
notes of the small sapajous, the grunting murmur of the striped night-monkey 
{Nyctvpithecus trivirgatus), which I was the first to describe, the fitful roar of the 
great tiger [jaguar], the cuguar, or maneless American lion [puma], the peccary, 
the sloth, and a host of parrots, parraquas, and other pheasant-like birds. When¬ 
ever the tiger approached the edge of the forest, our dog, who before had barked 
incessantly, came howling to seek protection under the hammocks. Sometimes 
the cry of the tiger resounded from the branches of a tree, and was then always 
accompanied by the plaintive, piping tones of the monkeys, who were endeavouring 
to escape from the unwonted pursuit. 
“ If one asks the Indians why such a continuous noise is heard on certain 
nights, they answer, with a smile, that ‘ the animals are rejoicing in the beautiful 
moonlight, and celebrating the return of the full moon.’ To me the scenes appeared 
rather to be owing to an accidental, long-continued, and gradually increasing- 
conflict among the animals. Thus, for instance, the jaguar will pursue the peccaries 
and the tapirs, which, densely crowded together, burst through the barrier of tree¬ 
like shrubs which opposes their flight. Terrified at the confusion, the monkeys 
on the tops of the trees join their cries with those of the larger animals. This 
arouses the tribes of birds who build their nests in communities, and suddenly the 
whole animal world is in a state of commotion. Further experience taught us that 
it was by no means always the festival of moonlight that disturbed the stillness of 
the forest; for we observed that the voices were loudest during the violent storms 
of rain, or when the thunder echoed and the lightning flashed through the depths 
of the woods. The good-natured Franciscan monk, who accompanied us, used to 
say, when apprehensive of a storm at night, ‘ May Heaven grant a quiet night both 
to us and to the wild beasts of the forest! 5 ” 
In connection with this subject, we may mention that a subsequent traveller, the 
late Mr. Bates, when on the Tapajos River, writes : “ I heard for the first and almost 
the only time the uproar of life at sunset which Humboldt describes as having wit- 
