Dampier relates, that when a troop of Aides have occasion to pass any of the Larger rivers of South America, they select a situation in which the trees are highest and project farthest over the stream ; then mounting to the topmost branches, they form a long chain by grasping one another a tails successively. Thia chain being allowed to bang freely at the lower end, whilst it is suspended from the top, is put in motion, and successively swung backwards and forwards till it acquires an impetus sufficient to carry it over to the opposite bank. When this is accomplished, the animal at the lower end catches the first branch which comes within his reach, and mounts to the highest, where as soon as he is firmly attached, the other end of the chain is permitted to awing, and thus the whole troop are passed over. The A Wee, as well indeed as all the other American Quadrunannes, are esteemed as an article of food by the native Indians ; and even Euro peans, whom curiosity or necessity has induced to taste it, report their flesh to be white, juicy, and agreeable. The only thing disgusting about it is a strong resemblance which the whole body, and partieularly the head and hands, bear to those of a young infant. Nor is it without being strongly disposed to question the nature of the act, that Euro pean sportsmen, unaccustomed to shooting monkeys, witness for the first time the dying struggles of these animals. Without uttering a complaint, they silently watch the blood as it flows from the wound, from time to time turning their eyes upon the sportsman with an expression of reproach which cannot be misinterpreted : some travellers even go so far este assert that the companions of the wounded individual will not only assist him to climb beyond the reach of further danger, but will even chew leaves and apply them to the wound for the pur pose of stopping the hemorrhage. The following species of Aides have been distinguished and characterised by naturalists and travellers : I. A. paniectur (Geoff.), the Quata, or as the French write it Coaita, is a large species, covered with long coarse hair of a glossy black colour ; the belly is protuberant, the head small and round, the limbs long and slender, the fore hands entirely deprived of thumbs, the tail robust and powerful, the eyes and cheeks deeply sunk, and the face copper-colour. On the back and outsides of the limbs the hair is very long and thick, but the belly and groins are nearly naked, and the raammw of the females are placed in the armpits. The hair of the bead is directed forwards, and the ears, concealed beneath it, differ from those of the human species only in having no inferior lobe. Thia species is very common in the woods of Surinam and Brazil. It is active and intelligent, and unites considerable prudence and pene tration to great gentleness of disposition. They go in large companies, and when they meet with a man or any animal which is strange to them, come down to the lower branches of the trees to examine them, and having satisfied their curiosity, begin to pelt them with sticks, and endeavour to frighten them away. They cannot leap, but exhibit the most surprising agility in swinging from tree to tree. Acosta, in his History of the West Indies,' relates the following anecdote of a Quata which belonged to the Governor of Carthagena :—" They sent him," says he, "to the tavern for wine, putting the pot in one band and the money in the other ; they could not possibly get the money out of his hand before his pot was full of wine. If any children met him in the street and threw stones at him, be would set his pot down and cast stones against the children, till he had assured his way, then would be return to carry home his pot. And what is more, although he was a good Libber of wine, yet he would never touch it till leave was given him." 2. A. marginatus (Geoff.), the Chuva, closely resembles the Quata in physiognomy, size, and proportions. The quality and colour of the hair are also the same in both, except that the face of the Chime is surrounded with a rim of white, which on the forehead particularly is broad, and directed upwards, so as to encounter the hair of the occiput and form a low crest on the top of the head. The hair of the forearm is directed partially towards the elbow ; like that of the body, it is long and coarse, and though perfectly black, has not the glossy appearance of the Quata's covering. The face is nearly naked, and tan-coloured ; the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and callous part of the tail are violet-black, and the whole skin beneath the hair appears to be of the same hue. The disposition and manners differ in no respect from those of the Quata.
3. A. ater (F. Cuvier), the Cayou,is considered by Messrs. Geoffrey and Desmarest as a variety of the Quata ; but F. Cuvier, from observa tions which he made upon the living animal, has recognised and described it as a distinct species. It must however be confessed that it approaches so nearly to the Quota as to render further observatious necessary to determine the question of their specific difference. The size, form, and colour are the same in both, and the only marked distinction reported by M. Cuvier consists in the colour of the face, which is black in the Cayou and copper-coloured in the Quata. "The hair," says M. Cuvicr, "is long, and of a harsh silky quality. It is rather shorter on the head and tail than on the rest of the body, where it falls backwards in the ordinary way, but on the head it is directed forwards, and falls over the face." 4. A. Belzebab (Geoff.), the Marinnonda, has the top of the head, the Lack, sides, and external surface of the extremities black, and all the under parts, the cheeks, throat, breast, belly, inside of the limbs, and under surface of the tail for its first half, white, with a slight shade of yellow. The naked parts are violet-black, except immediately about the eyes, which are surrounded by a flesh-coloured circle. This species, according to replaces the common Quata in Spanish Guyana, where it is extremely common, and is eaten by the Indiana "It is," says this celebrated traveller, "an animal very slow in its movements, and of a gentle, melancholy, and timid character ; if it occasionally bites, it does so only in its fits of terror. The Mari
months unite in great companies and form the most grotesque groups.
Old World. Except ba the total want of the thumb on the anterior extremities, the A. Arrehnoid, • appruaches very nearly to the following species, and appears indeed to be intermeliate between it and the common Quata.
7. A. hyparaathas (Kuhl), the Mono, or Miriki, inhabits the forests in the interior of Brazil, and, as has just been obaervial, approaches All their attitudes announce the extremity of sloth. I have frequently seen them, when exposed to the heat of a tropical anti, throw their heads backwards, turn their eyes upwards, bend their Firma over their backs, and remain motionle41 in this extraordinary position for many hours together." The young of this species appear to have the upper parts of the body mixed slightly with gray, but this mixture gradually disappears as it grows towards maturity, till the adult animal presents the uniform black above and white below, as already described.
L. A. meletancheir, Geoff., with the native Indian name of which we are unacquainted, is also a distinct species. The head, members, and tail are black or dark brown on the superior surface; the internal face of the arms and fore-arms as far as the wrists, and of the thighs and legs, the under surface of the tail, the throat, breast, belly, and sides of the hips, are white or silvery 'gray ; the shoulders are yellowish gray, and the remainder of the upper parts of the body, as well as the whiskers, are pure gray ; the four hands and the naked part of the tail are black, as are also the face, the cheeks, and the under half of the nose; but round the mouth and eyes the for is flesh coloured. The hair is uniformly of a silky quality : that on the black and white parts is of the same colour throughout, but on the gray parts it is annulated with alternate rings of black and white. This species, as well as all those hitherto described, is entirely deprived of the fore thumb, and does not even exhibit a rudiment of that organ. Only a single individual has been observed alive ; its manners are the same as those of the Atdes in general, but its habitat has not been definitely determined.
O. A. Arachnoides, or the Brown Quata, as it is called by Baron envier, partakes in fact very much of the characters and appearance of the common Quata, from which it is principally distinguished- by its uuiform reddish-brown colour. This species when full grown measures rather more than 2 feet in length; the tail is about 2 inches longer than the body ; the fore legs are 1 foot 9 inches long, the ldnd logs I foot 8 inches, and the hands (3 inches. The hair is short, fine, and soft, and that of the forehead is directed backwards, contrary to what is usually observed in the other Atelesi ; the back and upper parts of the body are, generally speaking, well covered with hair, hut the breast, belly, and groins are nearly naked, or at least sparingly covered with scattered hairs, of a longer and coarser quality than those on other parts ; the root of the tail is rather thick and bushy, but it is gradually attenuated towards the point, and for the last ten inches naked underneath. The general colour is uniform chestnut brown, the first of these colours becoming clearer and more intense upon the head, and more especially round the eyes; the forehead is bordered by a circle of Miff coarse black hairs, beneath which a semicircle of light silvery gray passes over the eyes in the form of brows, and 'becomes gradually more and more obscure, till it is tinnily lost in the uniform reddish.brown of the temples. The face is naked and flesh-coloured, the under parts of the body of 11 silvery gray slightly tinged with yellow, with the exception of the abdomen, which, as well as the inner surface of the thighs, and the naked stripe underneath the tail, are of a bright red colour. The manners and habits of this specie' are unknown in its native forests. Those which have been observed in a state of confinement exhibited all the gmtleneas and listless apathy of character which distingulah the Ateles from the common monkeys of South America, as eminently as they do the Gibbous of the Indian isles from the other Quadrunemer of the very nearly to the A. Aradinonles, as well in the colour of its fur as in the general form and proportions of its body and members; but it is readily distinguished from that species as well as from all the other A teles hitherto described, by the presence of a small rudimentary thumb on the fore hands. The face also is more uniformly covered with hair than in the generality of the other species, being naked only about the region of the eyes ; the hairs which compose the eyebrows are long, black, and directed upwards : the cheeks, lips, nose, and a narrow line descending from the forehead, are covered with short hairs of a pale yellowish-white colour; the chin also is furnished with short hair of .the same colour and quality, but intermixed with thinly scattered long black hairs, forming a species of beard, and extending over the upper lip in the form of thin moustaches. The ears are small and nearly concealed by the hair of the head, which though not very long is thickly furnished, and of a pale gray colour slightly tinged with yellow. The whole body and members are of a uniform grayish-fawn colour, only differing in the greater degree of intensity which distinguishes the back and upper parts from those beneath, and in the lighter gray tinge which predominates on the extremities. The backs of the fingers are hairy down to the very nails, and there is a rudiment of a thumb on the fore hands, covered with a short compressed nail.