Part 58

DISTRIBUTION.--This species is spread over Guiana, the forests of the Ucayali and Huallaga rivers in eastern Peru, and the northern part of Brazil, where it is known as the "Coaita," taking the place of the more northern Ateles ater. "It occurs," says Mr. Bates, "throughout the lowlands of the Lower and Upper Amazons, but does not range to the south beyond the limits of the river plains." In the higher part of the Rio Negro it comes down to the north bank, but does not cross to the south bank of the river.

HABITS.--This species is the best known of all the Spider-Monkeys. It is captured in large numbers, when young, by the natives of Guiana, and as they bear captivity well, many of them have been brought to Europe. They live in larger troops than do some of the other members of its genus; indeed, these companies are said to number as many as a hundred. They are very easily tamed, and become very affectionate. They live chiefly on fruits, principally on a species of palm-nut. Dampier, however, says, apparently of this species of Ateles: "The Monkeys come down by the Sea-side [at low water] and catch them [the Periwinckles and Muscles]; digging them out of their Shells with their Claws." Large numbers of this species {239}are also annually killed for food, their flesh being held in high esteem by the natives.

V. THE WHITE-WHISKERED SPIDER-MONKEY. ATELES MARGINATUS.

Ateles marginatus (nec Humb.), Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xiii., p. 92, pl. 10 (1809); Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 24 (1820); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 43 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 174 (1876).

Coaita à front blanc, femelle, Fr. Cuv., Hist. Nat. Mamm., livr. lxii. (Avril, 1830).

Ateles frontalis, Bennett, P. Z. S., 1831, p. 38.

CHARACTERS.--Similar in size and coloration to A. paniscus. Body lean; hair moderately long and coarse. Face naked, black, except the skin round the eyes, which is flesh-coloured; general colour black; under surface of body and inner sides of limbs, ashy-grey. It differs from A. paniscus by having the forehead, crown of head, a spot on each side of the nose, and the whiskers, white.

A specimen in the British Museum has four pre-molars in each upper jaw, instead of the normal three of the Cebidæ.

DISTRIBUTION.--This species was discovered by Humboldt on the banks of the Santiago river. Mr. Bates says "it is never met with in the alluvial plains of the Amazons," nor, he believes, on the northern side of the great river-valley, except towards its head-waters near the Andes.

HABITS.--According to Von Humboldt, this Spider-Monkey--known as the "White-Whiskered Coaita"--is very fierce and libidinous. Mr. Bates encountered this large and handsome species on the Cupari river, a tributary of the Tapajos, one {240}of the large southern affluents of the Amazon. Here he could get scarcely anything but fish to eat, and, as this diet did not agree with him, he was obliged to have recourse to the Coaita flesh. "I thought," he says, "the meat the best flavoured I have ever tasted. It resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste.... We smoke-dried the joints instead of salting them; placing them for several hours on a framework of sticks arranged over a fire. Nothing but the hardest necessity could have driven me so near to cannibalism as this, but we had the greatest difficulty in obtaining here a sufficient supply of animal food." Von Humboldt has also referred to the cooking of these Monkeys by the natives of the Upper Orinoko. "The manner of roasting these anthropomorphous animals," he writes, "contributes singularly to render their appearance disagreeable in the eyes of civilised Man. A little grating or lattice of very hard wood is formed, and raised one foot from the ground. The Monkey is skinned and bent into a sitting posture; the head generally resting on the arms, which are meagre and long; but sometimes these are crossed behind the back. When it is tied on the grating a very clear fire is kindled below.... On seeing the natives devour an arm or leg of a roasted Monkey, it is difficult not to believe that this habit of eating animals which so much resemble Man in their physical organisation, has in a certain degree contributed to diminish the horror of anthropophagy among savages. Roasted Monkeys, particularly those that have a very round head, display a hideous resemblance to a child; the Europeans, therefore, who are obliged to feed on Quadrumanes, prefer separating the head and the hands, and serve up only the rest of the animal at their tables. The flesh of Monkeys is so lean and dry that Mr. Bonpland has {241}preserved in his collections at Paris an arm and hand, which had been boiled over the fire at Esmeraldas; and no smell arises from them after a great number of years."

VI. THE BLACK-FACED SPIDER-MONKEY. ATELES ATER.

Ateles ater (Le Caijou), F. Cuvier, Mamm., i., pl. xxxix. (1823); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1872, p. 5; Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 42 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 170 (1876).

Sapajou ater, Slack, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad., 1862, p. 510.

CHARACTERS.--Entirely black; fur silky, and longer on the head and tail than on the body; fur on top of head directed from behind forwards, falling over the forehead, meeting the backwardly directed hairs of the forehead and forming a tuft. Face black, the upper part naked; chin with stiff black hairs mixed with a few white ones. Ears oval and human-like in form, the upper part movable at will. Thumbs entirely wanting. Length of body, 19 inches; tail, 26 inches.

Distinguished from A. paniscus, which it closely resembles, by the black colour of its face, and the direction of the hairs on the forehead.

YOUNG.--Lighter in colour than the adults; sometimes brown on the back and the outer side of the limbs.

DISTRIBUTION.--The Black-Faced Spider-Monkey ranges from Panama, through the United States of Colombia to Eastern Peru.

HABITS.--Entirely arboreal, living in large troops, and feeding on fruits.

{242}VII. THE GRIZZLED SPIDER-MONKEY. ATELES GRISESCENS

Ateles grisescens, Scl. MSS.; Gray, P. Z. S., 1865, p. 732; id. Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 42 (1870); Scl., P. Z. S., 1871, p. 223; Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 168 (1876).

CHARACTERS.--Hair of forehead elongate. Fur in general moderately long, black, with greyish-white hairs intermingled, giving it a grizzled appearance; under side of tail grey. Similar to A. ater and A. paniscus, but distinguished by the intermixture of grey hairs, and by the colour of the under side of the tail. Thumbs absent.

YOUNG MALE.--Rather lighter in colour, especially on the under side of body; tail black above, grey beneath. Length of body, 14 inches; tail, 16 inches.

DISTRIBUTION.--The habitat of this species is not certainly known. Dr. Sclater considers it probable that it will turn up in some part of the Central American or the Colombian coast.

VIII. THE BROWN-HEADED SPIDER-MONKEY. ATELES FUSCICEPS.

Ateles fusciceps, Fraser MSS.; Gray, P. Z. S., 1865, p. 733; Sclater, P. Z. S., 1872, p. 663, pl. lv.; Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 42 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 173 (1876).

CHARACTERS.--Fur thick. Hairs long, shining, crisp, deep black above, the hairs of the back with brownish tips; the under side of the body and inside of the limbs black; crown of head deep coffee-brown. Length of body about 20 inches; of the tail, 26 inches, according to the dimensions taken from the skin of a young animal by Dr. Sclater. Thumbs entirely wanting.

{243}DISTRIBUTION.--In 1860, when Mr. L. Fraser returned from Ecuador, he spoke of a large Monkey he had seen, but had not obtained, in the valleys of Western Ecuador. It remained unknown until it was shot, and brought to England by Mr. Buckley some ten years later. It was the only Monkey, he says, except a Mycetes, which he saw in Trans-Andean Ecuador.

HABITS.--These, doubtless, do not differ from those of other Spider-Monkeys.