molars; the thumbs of the
fore-hands are not habitually opposed to the fingers (one genus, Ateles,
"the imperfect," is thumbless altogether); the nostrils open on the
sides of the nose instead of beneath it, as in the gorilla, and the
majority have long prehensile tails. They are inferior in rank to the
anthropoids of the Old World, though superior to the lemurs of
Madagascar. They are usually grouped in two families--Marmosets and
Cebidre. The former are restless, timid, squirrel-like lilliputs (one
species is only seven inches long), with tails not prehensile--in the
case of the scarlet-faced, nearly wanting. The Barigudos, or gluttons
(_Lagothrix_), are the largest of American monkeys, but are not so tall
as the Coaitas. They are found west of Manaos. They have more human
features than the other monkeys, and, with their woolly gray fur,
resemble an old negro. There are three kinds of howlers (_Mycetes_)--the
red or mono-colorado of Humboldt, the black, and the _M. beelzebub_,
found only near Para. The forest is full of these surly, untamable
guaribas, as the natives call them. They are gifted with a voice of
tremendous power and volume, with which they make night and day hideous.
They represent the baboons of the Old World in disposition and facial
angle (30 deg.), and the gibbons in their yells and gregarious habits.[178]
The Sapajous (_Cebus_) are distributed throughout Brazil, and have the
reputation of being the most mischievous monkeys in the country. On the
west coast of South America there are at least three or four species of
monkeys, among them a black howler and a _Cebus capucinus_. The Coitas,
or spider-monkeys, are the highest of American quadrumana. They are
slender-legged, sluggish, and thumbless, with a most perfectly
prehensile tail, terminating in a naked palm, which answers for a fifth
hand. The Indians say they walk under the limbs like the sloth. They are
the most common pets in Brazil, but they refuse to breed in captivity.
Both Coitas and Barigudos are much persecuted for their flesh, which is
highly esteemed by the Indians.

[Footnote 178: Ruetimeyer has found a fossil howler in the Swiss
Jura--middle cocene.]

Mr. Bates has called our attention to the arboreal character of a large
share of the animals in the Amazonian forest. All the monkeys and bats
are climbers, and live in the trees. Nearly all the carnivores are
feline, and are therefore tree-mounters, though they lead a terrestrial
lif