Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/324

 the interest belonging to the study of the living creation. The structure, habits, instincts, and geographical distribution of some of the oldest-known forms supply inexhaustible materials for reflection. The few remarks I have to make on the animals of Ega will relate to the mammals, birds, and insects, and will sometimes apply to the productions of the whole Upper Amazons region. We will begin with the monkeys, the most interesting, next to man, of all animals.

Scarlet-faced Monkeys.—Early one sunny morning, in the year 1855, I saw in the streets of Ega, a number of Indians carrying on their shoulders down to the port, to be embarked on the Upper Amazons steamer, a large cage made of strong lianas, some twelve feet in length and five in height, containing a dozen monkeys of the most grotesque appearance. Their bodies (about eighteen inches in height, exclusive of limbs) were clothed from neck to tail with very long, straight, and shining whitish hair; their heads were nearly bald, owing to the very short crop of thin gray hairs, and their faces glowed with the most vivid scarlet hue. As a finish to their striking physiognomy, they had bushy whiskers of a sandy colour, meeting under the chin, and reddish-yellow eyes. They sat gravely and silently in a group, and altogether presented a strange spectacle. These red-faced apes belonged to a species called by the Indians Uakarí, which is peculiar to the Ega district, and the cage with its contents was being sent as a present by Senhor Chrysostomo, the Director of Indians of the Japurá, to one of the Government officials at Rio Janeiro, in acknowledgment of having