Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/342

 as though it held a ball of snow-white cotton in its teeth. The last I shall mention is the Hapale pygmæus, one of the most diminutive forms of the monkey order. I obtained, near St. Paulo, three full-grown specimens, which measured only seven inches in length of body. The pretty Lilliputian face is furnished with long brown whiskers, which are naturally brushed back over the ears. The general colour of the animal is brownish-tawny, but the tail is elegantly barred with black. I was surprised, on my return to England, to learn that the pigmy marmoset was found also in Mexico, no other Amazonian monkey being known to wander far from the great river plain. Thus the smallest, and apparently the feeblest, species of the whole order, is one which has, by some means, become the most widely dispersed.

The Jupurá.—A curious animal, known to naturalists as the Kinkajou, but called Jupurá by the Indians of the Amazons, and considered by them as a kind of monkey, may be mentioned in this place. It is the Cercoleptes caudivolvus of zoologists, and has been considered by some authors as an intermediate form between the Lemur family of apes and the plantigrade Carnivora, or Bear family. It has decidedly no close relationship to either of the groups of American monkeys, having six cutting teeth to each jaw, and long claws inteadinstead [sic] of nails, with extremities of the usual shape of paws instead of hands. Its muzzle is conical and pointed, like that of many Lemurs of Madagascar; the expression of its countenance, and its habits and actions, are also very similar to those of Lemurs. Its tail is