THE CHAMECK, OR TSCHAKMECK.[85]
An old author, Von Sack, in his voyage to Guinea, gives the following account of the manners of this Spider Monkey:—“It is of a very docile disposition, and capable of being quite domesticated. I have seen a pair of them at a gentleman’s house at Paramaribo, which were left quite at liberty. When the female negroes were employed at their needlework, they used to come and sit amongst them and play with pieces of paper, and afterwards go and gambol amongst the trees, but never went over to the neighbouring gardens. They well knew the hour of dinner of their master, when they would come to the gallery, look in at the windows, though without attempting to enter into the room, being aware that this was a liberty which was not allowed them; they therefore patiently waited for their dinner outside.”
The Latin name of this species refers to its having hardly five fingers. It has four and a short stump of a thumb, visible and useless, but consisting of two bones, the usual muscles, and the skin covering. It is larger than the Coaita, and is black, and covered with long hair, but the face is brown. The tail is considerably longer than the body.
CHAMECK.
THE BLACK SPIDER MONKEY.
This Spider Monkey is more interesting for its geographical range and favourite localities than for anything else. It lives in Central America, north of Panama, and is common in the neighbourhood of the volcano called Orizaba, in the state of Vera Cruz. It lives in companies in the deep barrancas, up to an elevation of two thousand feet above the sea, and in the State of Oaxaca it roams in the forests up the country to a height of four thousand feet, being the same elevation to which the Tapir often reaches in its roaming. It is a black Ateles, with very long hair, which spreads out in all directions, but there is grey-white on the inside of the limbs, and underneath. It has no thumbs on the hands.
The position which the Ateles take in resting is often very curious. The great Apes of the Old World can lie on their backs like a man, and the Monkeys with callosities sit on them, and, drawing up the knees, let the head fall on to them, or on to the breast, bringing the arms forward when they sleep. But the want of callosities, and of the peculiar flatness of back which characterises the Anthropomorpha, prevents the American Monkeys from adopting either of these positions. Many lie on their sides, and others huddle up in parties, but the Ateles often lie across two or three rope-like horizontal stems, with the face looking downwards, a turn being taken by the tail round the support to insure safety. The length of the back has something to do with this, and of course with their extraordinary agility. The dorsal region of the back-bone, or that which bears ribs, is as long in comparison with the other (neck and loin) regions as in any Monkey; indeed, the maximum of length is attained. There are either thirteen or fourteen back-bone pieces (vertebræ), which have ribs attached to them. The lower vertebræ are four or five in number, and the tail is at its maximum of length in relation to that of the body, its pieces (caudal vertebræ) being very complicated near its root. There, eight pieces (vertebræ) are so like those of the back that they have spines, cross processes, of course without ribs, jointing processes, and a similar nervous canal to those which are higher up in the body. The spinal marrow does not go down it, however. Underneath them are the V-shaped or chevron bones. The end bones are short and thick.
THE VARIEGATED SPIDER MONKEY.[86]
These Monkeys appear to go in small parties, passing through the forests at a rapid pace, feeding on different kinds of berries. The berries which Mr. Bartlett found in their stomachs resembled a gooseberry with a large stone inside. Owing to their great length of limb and tail, and to their muscular vigour, these Spider Monkeys travel far and wide. They are found on both sides of the Peruvian Amazon (or Marañon), and on both sides of the Huallaga. They are also common on the Rio Tigri, and range along the lower spurs of the Andes, across Ecuador and Columbia, over the head waters of the Rio Napa, Rio Japura, and Rio Negro, where it was first discovered. They have also been found in Venezuela. Bartlett endeavoured to hunt them on the Rio Tigri, a small tributary that runs into the Amazon about four miles above the town of Nanta, on the north-western shores of the Peruvian Amazon, but was prevented by the fever and ague of the climate, and the fears of the Indians. Going into the mountains up the Marañon River, he heard from the Indians of the presence of a long-armed Ape—called in their language Maciosuppeh—at the distance of three days’ journey. He engaged three Indians, started by way of a forest footpath that had been opened by a Catholic priest, to the town of Moyahamba, as part of his penitence. He writes:—“At the end of three days I reached the highest point of the mountains; here we came across a number of the Monkeys in question—about eight or nine. I shot the male that is now in the British Museum, and my Indians brought down another with a poison-dart. Having obtained two of them I was satisfied that I had found a new species. While, however, I was busily engaged preparing the first specimen, my Indians had quietly placed the other on the fire; and, to my great horror and disgust, they had singed the hair off, and thus spoiled the specimen. Of course I was obliged to keep the peace, for they had not tasted meat for some days, and the Monkey proved a very dainty dish.”