ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
37 
RED TAKING A SUN BATH 
Every morning lie climbs to the top of a smail table near a window and stretches out in the warm rays of the sun. 
tendency of our specimen to give off through the 
pores of the skin and the hair the reddish color- 
pigment which gives this species its name. When 
this little animal is given a bath, the water be¬ 
comes deeply stained within a few minutes with 
the same peculiar, reddish color as his hair, 
and he emerges from the bath as if distinctly 
bleached, the long hair of the back being almost 
yellow. Within, a week he “colors” up again. 
This dye action of the hair is more strikingly 
illustrated by the' small blanket in which he is 
wrapped at night. At times this becomes as 
deeply tinted as if stained with iron rust. We 
have saved portions of the blanket for analysis. 
The strange dye-giving tendency of the hair may 
explain the great difference in color observed 
among wild howling monkeys, some of which are 
dark red, some pale rusty red, and others 
actually yellow. It may be that the exposure of 
some individuals to heavy rains in the jungle, 
while others have been sheltered, has resulted in 
these color variations. We have had the woolly 
monkey of South America and the saki at our 
home, but with these we have never noted this 
condition. Nor have we observed a hint of it 
among the Old World monkeys, such as the 
macaques and mangabevs that my father has 
studied and photographed in his laboratory—all 
of which are carefully bathed before filming, 
in order that their coats may be in tbe best 
possible condition. 
Our howler has a fair vocabulary of dis¬ 
tinct sounds. He seldom utters his deep-toned 
and weird roars unless he is hunting some¬ 
one and is in doubt as to just where they*'are. 
When lie unexpectedly discovers a. member of 
the family, in one of the rooms, quietly reading, 
he enters the room uttering low short grunts 
or barks, sounds difficult to describe. Climbing 
up on the chair and settling in one’s lap, he 
croons in soft fashion and makes gurgling 
sounds, produced by gently expelling air against 
the roof of the mouth. He has a habit of plead¬ 
ing, witli prolonged whining sounds, to have 
his back scratched, or to be noticed; and when 
frightened lie utters an altogether unique, sharp 
bark, repeated several times. The exhaust 
whistles on automobiles passing the house will 
often cause him to glance towards the windows 
and utter these barking sounds. 
Red is horribly afraid of a human sneeze; 
just why, we do not know, because his vocabu¬ 
lary contains no such sound. If anyone sneezes, 
Red gives a quick glance at the nearest window 
