Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/328

 covered with hair, and of little or no service in climbing, a few species nearly related to our Uakarí having it much shorter than usual. All the Cebidæ, both long-tailed and short-tailed, are equally dwellers in trees. The scarlet-faced monkey lives in forests, which are inundated during great part of the year, and is never known to descend to the ground; the shortness of its tail is therefore no sign of terrestrial habits, as it is in the Macaques and Baboons of the Old World. It differs a little from the typical Cebidæ in its teeth, the incisors being oblique and, in the upper jaw, converging, so as to leave a gap between the outermost and the canine teeth. Like all the rest of its family, it differs from the monkeys of the old world, and from man, in having an additional grinding-tooth (premolar) in each side of both jaws, making the complete set thirty-six instead of thirty-two in number.

The white Uakarí (Brachyurus calvus), seems to be found in no other part of America than the district just mentioned, namely, the banks of the Japurá, near its principal mouth; and even there it is confined, as far as I could learn, to the western side of the river. It lives in small troops amongst the crowns of the lofty trees, living on fruits of various kinds. Hunters say it is pretty nimble in its motions, but is not much given to leaping, preferring to run up and down the larger boughs in travelling from tree to tree. The mother, as in other species of the monkey order, carries her young on her back. Individuals are obtained alive by shooting them with the blow-pipe and arrows tipped with diluted Urarí poison. They run a considerable distance after being