Part 31

CHARACTERS.--Face naked, flesh-coloured; ears naked, flesh-coloured, exposed; no ear-pencils, as in H. chrysoleuca; tail uniform black; head and fore-limbs pale brown; front of the body paler; front edges of the thighs, and a band across the loins, white. Length, 7 inches, without the tail. Some varieties have the body entirely covered with long, white, silky hairs.

DISTRIBUTION.--Bolivia and Brazil. Mr. Bates says that the Black-tailed Marmoset is one of the rarest of the American Monkeys. He did not hear of its being found anywhere in Amazonia except near Cametá, on the River Tocantins.

HABITS.--Little is known of the habits of this species, few naturalists having had the good fortune to observe it in its native state. Mr. Bates, however, once saw three individuals together, running along a branch, and looking like white Kittens. "I afterwards saw a pet animal," he says in his book, "of this species, and heard that there were many so kept, and that they were esteemed as choice treasures.... It was a most timid and sensitive thing. The woman who owned it carried it constantly in her bosom, and no money would induce her to part with her pet.... The nervous little creature would not permit strangers to touch it. If anyone attempted to do so, it shrank back, the whole body trembling with fear, and its teeth chattered, whilst it uttered its tremulous, frightened tones. The expression of its features was like that of its more robust brother, Midas ursulus; the eyes, which were black, were full of curiosity and mistrust, and it always kept them fixed on the person who attempted to advance towards it."

{138}THE TAMARINS. GENUS MIDAS.

Midas, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 120 (1812).

This genus differs from the preceding only in the characters of some of the teeth. The canine teeth in the lower jaw are longer than their neighbouring incisors; but, as has been pointed out by Prof. St. George Mivart, it is a question whether this generic distinction can be maintained, as an intermediate condition exists in some forms.

For the convenience of description the species of this genus have been divided into two groups--(a) those with long hair on the head and neck, and (b) those with short hairs on the back of the head. The number of species in the latter group is greater than in the former; and they are further divided into those with, and those without, white lips.

I. THE SILKY TAMARIN. MIDAS ROSALIA.

Simia rosalia, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 41, pl. i. (1766).

Midas rosalia, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 121 (1812).

Leontopithecus rosalia, Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 65 (1870).

Hapale rosalia, Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 250 (1876).

CHARACTERS.--This is the first species of the long-whiskered and maned group; fur soft and silky; tail equal in length to the body, bushy at the tip; hair round the face and on the back of the neck very long, forming a conspicuous ruff. Face, hands, and feet purple; general colour of the hair golden yellow, more or less red, and glossy.

These animals are said to possess an air-sac in the throat, at the back of the trachea (or windpipe), as in Ateles. Length, 11 inches; tail, 12 inches.

{139}DISTRIBUTION.--The Silky Tamarin is found in the forests of South-eastern Brazil, in the coastal forests of New Granada, and as far north as the Isthmus of Panama.

HABITS.--The "Marakina," as this exceedingly beautiful species is often called, lives in small troops, ascending to the slender branches at the tops of the highest trees in the forest. The species is very playful and intelligent.

Closely related to the Silky Tamarin, if indeed it is really distinct from it, is the Maned Tamarin (M. leoninus, of Humboldt), which inhabits the same region, and is only seven inches in length, exclusive of the tail. "It is named leoninus," remarks Mr. Bates, "on account of the long brown mane which depends from the neck, and which gives it very much the appearance of a diminutive Lion." In referring to their intelligence, the same writer continues, "Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of a species of this genus, that it distinguished between different objects depicted on an engraving. M. Audouin showed it the portraits of a cat and a wasp; at these it became much terrified, whereas at the sight of a figure of a grasshopper or beetle it precipitated itself on the picture as if to seize the objects there represented."

Another species, the Golden-headed Tamarin (M. chrysomelas, of Kuhl), which is in general colour black, with the head, fore-arms, hands, and a line beneath the tail, golden-yellow, is, according to Dr. Gray, "very like a melanism of Leontopithecus (= Midas) rosalia; but the hands and feet, which are sometimes blackish in that species, are yellow--that is to say, not changed."

II. GEOFFROY'S TAMARIN. MIDAS GEOFFROYI.

Midas oedipus, var. Spix, Sim. et Vespert. Bras., p. 30, pl. 23 (1823).

{140}Hapale geoffroyi, Pucher., Rev. Zool., 1845, p. 336; Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 258 (1876).

Midas geoffroyi, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 63 (1851); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 478, pl. xxxviii.

Midas ursulus (nec Geoffr.), Rep. Council Zool. Soc., 1858, p. 16.

Oedipus geoffroyi, Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 65 (1870).

(Plate XIII.)

CHARACTERS.--Face black; a patch on the top of the head white; back of neck and shoulders, lower part of back, and upper side of base of tail rusty-brown; ears, back, outer side of arms and thighs, and outer side of upper part of leg, brownish-grey; throat, under surface of body, outer and inner surface of fore-arms and legs, white; remainder of tail black.

Hair on the crown of the head short, forming a narrow oblong patch; that on the nape of the neck elongated.

DISTRIBUTION.--At present only known from Panama.