it for a monkey,--Guapo excepted,--had they not been already
talking about it.

"Oh, yonder's another!" cried Leon, pointing higher up in the tree; and,
sure enough, there was, for the ai is usually found in company with its
mate. The other was a copy of the one already observed, with some slight
difference in size--no doubt it was the female one. Both had observed
the approach of the party, and now uttered their melancholy
"Ayee--a-ee!" that sounded anything but agreeable. In fact, so very
disagreeable is the voice of this creature, that it has been considered
its best weapon of defence. Beside the utterance of their cry, neither
of them made any effort to escape or defend themselves.

Don Pablo and the rest were about to pass on and leave the ais to their
leaf diet, but Guapo had other notions on that subject. Ugly as these
creatures were, Guapo intended to have one of them for his dinner. He,
therefore, begged Don Pablo to stop a moment until he should get them
down. How was this to be done? Would he climb up and drag them from the
tree? That is not so easily accomplished, for the ais, with their
crescent claws, can hold on with terrible force. Besides, they were out
upon the slender branches, where it would have been difficult to get at
them.

But Guapo did not intend to climb. The tree was a slender one--he had
his axe with him--and the next moment its keen blade was crashing
through the bark of the ambaiba wood. A few minutes served to bring the
tree down, and down it came, the ais screaming as it fell. Guapo now
approached to seize them, but about this he used some caution. Both
finding themselves without hope of escape, prepared for defence. Buffon
asserts that they make none. That is not true, as was seen by all the
party.

Throwing themselves on their backs, they struck out with their fore-arms
in a sort of mechanical manner. These with the long horny claws they
kept playing in front of their bodies, striking alternately with them,
and rapidly, as a dog will do when suddenly plunged into water. Guapo
did not put his hands near them. He knew they would not bite, but he
also knew that he might get a scratch with the sharp claws, and that he
did not wish for. But Guapo had a way to take them, and that he now put
in practice. Lopping a couple of branches from the tree, he held one out
to each of the ais, and touched them with it on the breast.

Each, as soon as it felt the branch, clutched it tightly between