The alouate has the same character as the ouarine, and seems to differ from him only in having a larger beard, and a reddish-coloured hair. I do not know whether the females of this species are subject to a periodical emanation; but from analogy, I should presume the contrary, for I have generally observed, that the apes, baboons, and monkeys, with naked posteriors, alone are subject to this emanation.
[THE COAITA, AND THE EXQUIMA.]
NEXT to the ouarine and the alouate, the coaita ([fig. 213.]) is the largest of the sapajous. I saw one alive at the Duke of Bouillon’s, where, by its familiarity and forward caresses, it deserved and obtained the affection of those who had it under their care; but notwithstanding all the good treatment and attention paid to it, it could not resist the cold of the winter 1764. It died regretted by its master, who was so kind as to send it to me to place it in the Royal Cabinet. I saw another at the Marquis de Montmirail’s, the latter was a male, and the former a female, and both were equally tractable and well tamed. This sapajou, by its gentle and docile disposition, differs greatly from the ouarine and the alouate, which are extremely wild and untameable. It also differs from them in not having a bony pouch in the throat. Like the ouarine, its hair is black, but rough. The coaita also differs from them, in having but four fingers and no thumb to the fore paws: by this character and its prehensile tail it is easily distinguished from the monkeys, who have all five fingers and a flaccid tail.
The animal which Marcgrave calls exquima is very similar to the coaita, and, perhaps, is only a variety of that species. This author seems to have been deceived when he said that the exquima was a native of Guinea and Congo. The figure he has given of it, is alone sufficient to demonstrate his error; for the animal is there represented with a tail curled at the extremity, a character which belongs solely to the sapajous; consequently, the exquima of Marcgrave is not, as he tells us, a monkey of Guinea, but a sapajou with a prehensile tail, which, without doubt, had been transported there from Brasil. The word exquima, or quima, expunging the article ex, ought to be pronounced quoima, and then it is not very distant from quoaita, which is written coaita by many authors. Every circumstance, therefore, concurs to prove, that this exquima of Marcgrave was a sapajou of Brasil, and only a variety of the coaita, which it resembles in nature, size, colour, and the prehensile tail. The only material difference consists in the exquima having a whitish hair on the belly, and a white beard under the chin, about two inches long. Our coaitas have neither this white hair nor the beard: but what makes me still presume that this difference is not sufficient to constitute two distinct species is the testimonies of travellers, who tell us, that there are both black and white coaitas, and that some of them have beards, and others are without.
"There are (says Dampier) in the isthmus of America, great numbers of monkeys, some of which are white, but the most of them black; some have beards, others none: they are of a middling size, and in dry weather when the fruits are in season they are very fat; their flesh is then extremely good, and we ate great numbers of them, which example was after a time followed by the Indians, who were shy of eating them at first. In the rainy seasons these animals have a quantity of worms in their bowels, and I have seen some of them several feet long.—These monkeys are very droll, and played a thousand grotesque tricks as we traversed the woods; leaping from branch to branch with their young upon their backs, making faces, chattering, and even seeking opportunities to make water upon our heads. When they are unable to leap from one tree to another, on account of the distance, their dexterity is very surprising; they form a kind of chain, hanging down by each other’s tails; one of them holding the branch above, the rest swing to and fro like a pendulum, until the undermost is enabled to catch hold of the branches of the other tree, when the first lets go his hold and thus comes undermost in his turn; and then, by degrees, they all get upon the branches of the tree without ever coming to the ground." All these particulars perfectly agree with our coaitas. M. Daubenton, in his dissection of these animals, found a great quantity of worms in their entrails, some of which were from twelve to thirteen inches long. We cannot, therefore, have any doubt but that the exquima of Marcgrave is a sapajou of the same, or at least of a very proximate species to that of the coaita.
We must likewise observe, that if the animal indicated by Linnæus, under the name of diana, be, in fact, as he says, the exquima of Marcgrave, he has omitted the prehensile tail, which is the most essential character, and which alone will decide whether this diana belong to the sapajou or monkey genus, and of course, whether it be found in the Old or New Continent.
Independently of this variety, the characters of which are very apparent, there are other varieties, though less striking, in the species of the coaita. That described by Brisson had whitish hair on all the lower parts of the body, while those which we have seen were entirely black, and had but very little hair on those parts, the skin being plainly seen, which was also of a black colour. One of the two coaitas spoken of by Mr. Edwards was black, and the other brown: they are termed, says he, spider monkeys, on account of their tail and limbs being so very long and slender.
Some years ago a coaita was presented to me by the name of chameck, which I was informed came from the coast of Peru. I had it measured, and made a description of it, in order to compare it with that which M. Daubenton had given of the coaita, and immediately discovered that this chameck of Peru, a few varieties excepted, is the same animal as the coaita of Guiana.