furnished with long, prehensile tails. Some
have the under part of the extremity perfectly smooth, so as to serve
the purpose of a fifth hand, by which the creatures can swing themselves
from bough to bough, and hold on securely while their four hands are
actively employed. On passing through an Amazonian forest, sometimes
the branches of the trees are seen alive with active little creatures
swinging backwards and forwards, climbing up the sipos with the agility
of seamen on the rigging of a ship, scampering along the boughs, playing
all sorts of antics, or engaged in plucking the juicy fruit or hard nuts
to be found in ample abundance, even on the tallest monarchs of the
woods.

SPIDER-MONKEYS.

Among the most curious of the monkey tribe are the ateles, or
spider-monkeys,--called also Cebidae, and, by the natives sapajous, one
of the species of the coaita, or quata. As they are seen gambolling
among the trees, with their long limbs, and still longer tails, ever
actively employed, their resemblance to huge spiders is remarkable. Not
that the creature is always in a state of activity, for it will often
sit swinging slowly backwards and forwards, or place itself in the
oddest of attitudes without moving a limb, as if resting after its
exertions, or, in a contemplative mood, watching the proceedings in the
world below. Sometimes a whole colony may thus be seen, when the native
huntsman, approaching with his deadly blow-pipe, can without difficulty
pick them off one by one, and secure his prey. But let them be alarmed,
and away they go through the forest, swinging themselves from bough to
bough, at a rate which no other creature, without wings, can exceed.

In the spider-monkeys, the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its
highest degree of perfection, and they may therefore be considered as
the extreme development of the American type of apes. Their tails are
endowed with the most wonderful degree of flexibility. They are always
in motion--except when the animal is perfectly at rest--coiling and
uncoiling themselves, like the trunks of elephants, seeking to grasp,
apparently, whatever comes within their reach.

The coaita can apply its tail to all sorts of uses. So delicate is its
touch, that one would almost think it possessed the power of sight.
Should it discover a nest of eggs or any creature in a crevice too small
for its paw to enter, it inserts the end of its tail and hooks out the
tit-bit.

The anim