YELLOW-TAILED HOWLER AND YOUNG.
Finally this and all the Howlers have the stomach a little disposed to be arranged as more than one single sac, and in this there is just the hint of the condition in the Semnopitheci of the Old World.
THE BLACK HOWLER.[79]
These Monkeys are called the Monos by the natives of Guatemala, and certainly deserve some other name than Howlers. Howling is a moderate noise in comparison with the loud, widely-heard yell which they can produce. The effect of these noises when produced by four or five animals trying their voices one against the other in the quiet forest is most remarkable and unpleasant. Salvin thus writes:—“The wonderful cry whence Mycetes gets its trivial name of Howling Monkey is certainly most striking, and I have sometimes endeavoured to ascertain how far this cry may be heard. It has taken me an hour or more to thread the forest undergrowth from the time the cry first struck my ear to where, guided by the cry above, I stood under the tree where the animals were. It would certainly not be over-estimating the distance to say two miles. When the sound came over the Lake of Yzabal unhindered by trees, a league would be more like the distance at which the Monos’ cry could be heard.”
CAPARRO, OR HUMBOLDT’S LAGOTHRIX. (From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.)
The Monos are abundant throughout the forests of the eastern part of Guatemala, but are unknown in the forest-clad regions which stretch toward the Pacific Ocean. They are particularly plentiful in the unbroken forest country which occupies the northern part of Vera Paz, for seldom an hour passes without the weird outcry falling on the ear of the traveller even when at the height of 6,000 feet. At this height in a cold and damp region, where the forest trees are of the largest growth, these Howlers congregate in the upper branches of the highest trees. Living in small companies of five or six, they crawl sluggishly along the boughs when disturbed. It was from such a locality that those specimens of this species were found which are now in the British Museum. The animals afford a dark and not very nice meat, which is readily eaten by the Indians. The young as well as the females are of the same dense black colour as the old males, but the hair is shorter and not so glossy. All have the hair of the front part of the head long and soft, and inclined forward over the forehead nearly to the eyes. There are ten species of Howlers, and they are found in the forests covering the country from East Guatemala to Paraguay.