THE SCARLET-FACED, OR WHITE-SKINNED SAKI. THE UAKARI, AND THE BALD-HEADED BRACHYURE, OR SAKI.[104]
These are the names of a rare Monkey, which Bates described as follows:—“Early one sunny morning, in the year 1855, I saw in the streets of Ega a number of Indians, carrying on their shoulders down to the port, to be embarked on the Upper Amazon steamer, a large cage, made of strong lianas, some twelve feet in length and five in height, containing a dozen Monkeys of the most grotesque appearance. Their bodies (about eighteen inches in height, exclusive of limbs) were clothed from neck to tail with very long, straight, and shining whitish hair. Their heads were nearly bald, owing to the very short crop of thin grey hairs, and their faces glowed with the most vivid scarlet hue. As a finish to their striking physiognomy, they had bushy whiskers of a sandy colour, meeting under the chin, and reddish-yellow eyes. They sat gravely and silently in a group, and altogether presented a strange spectacle. These red-faced Apes belonged to a species called by the Indians Vikarof, which is peculiar to the Ega district, and they had been obtained with great difficulty in the forests which cover the low lands, near the principal mouth of the Japura, about thirty miles from Ega. It was the first time I had seen this most curious of all the South American Monkeys. I afterwards made a journey to the district inhabited by it, but did not then succeed in obtaining specimens; before leaving the country, however, I acquired two individuals, one of which lived in my house for several weeks.
COUXIO. (From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.)
“The Scarlet-faced Monkey lives in forests which are inundated during a great part of the year. It 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 the rest of its family, it differs from the Monkeys of the Old World, and from man, in having an additional grinding tooth (pre-molar) on each side of both jaws, making the complete set thirty-six, instead of thirty-two, in number. This Uakari (Brachyurus calvus), also called the White Uakari, from its skin, seems to be found in no other part of America than the district just mentioned, namely, the banks of the Japura, 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 Urari poison. They run a considerable distance after being pierced, and it requires an experienced hunter to track them. He is considered the most expert who can keep pace with a wounded one, and catch it in his arms when it falls exhausted. A pinch of salt (the antidote to the poison) is then put in its mouth, and the creature revives. The species is rare, even to the limited district which it inhabits. Senikor Chrysostomo sent six of his most skilful Indians, who were absent three weeks before they obtained the twelve specimens already noticed. When an independent hunter obtains one, a very high price (thirty or forty milreis—£3 7s. to £4 13s.) is asked, these Monkeys being in great demand for presents to persons of influence down the river. Adult Uakaries caught in the way just described very rarely become tame. They are peevish and sulky, resisting all attempts to coax them, and biting any one who ventures within reach. They have no particular cry, even when in their native woods. In captivity they are quite silent. In the course of a few days, or weeks, if not very carefully attended to, they fall into a listless condition, refuse food, and die. Many of them succumb to a disease which, I supposed from the symptoms, to be inflammation of the chest or lungs. The one which I kept as a pet died of this disorder after I had had it about three weeks. It lost its appetite in a very few days, although kept in an airy verandah. Its coat, which was originally long, smooth, and glossy, became dingy and ragged, like that of the specimens seen in museums; and the bright scarlet colour of its face changed to a duller hue. This colour, in health, is spread over the features up to the roots of the hair on the forehead and temples, and down to the neck, including the flabby cheeks, which hang down below the jaws. The animal in this condition looks, at a short distance, as though some one had laid a thick coat of red paint on its countenance. The death of my pet was slow; during the last twenty-four hours it lay prostrate, breathing quickly, its chest strongly heaving. The colour of its face grew gradually paler, but was still red when it expired. As the hue did not quite disappear until two or three hours after the animal was quite dead, I judged that it was not exclusively due to the blood, but partly to a pigment beneath the skin, which would probably retain its colour a short time after the circulation had ceased. After seeing much of the morose disposition of the Uakari, I was not a little surprised one day at a friend’s house to find an extremely lively and familiar individual of this species. It ran from an inner chamber straight towards me after I had sat down on a chair, climbed my legs, and nestled in my lap, turning round and looking up with the usual Monkey’s grin after it had made itself comfortable. It was a young animal, which had been taken when its mother was shot with a poisoned arrow. Its teeth were incomplete, and the face was pale and mottled, the glowing scarlet hue not supervening in these animals before mature age; it had also a few long black hairs on the eyebrows and lips. The frisky little fellow had been reared in the house amongst the children, and allowed to run about freely, and took its meals with the rest of the household. There are few animals which the Brazilians of these villages have not succeeded in taming. I have even seen young Jaguars running loose about a house, and treated as pets. The animals that I had rarely became familiar, however long they might remain in my possession, a circumstance due, no doubt, to their being kept always tied up. The Uakari is one of the many species of animals which are classified by the Brazilians as ‘mortal,’ or of delicate constitution, in contradistinction to those which are ‘duro,’ or hardy. A large proportion of the specimens sent from Ega die before arriving at Para, and scarcely one in a dozen succeeds in reaching Rio Janeiro alive. It appears, nevertheless, that an individual has once been brought in a living state to England, for Dr. Gray relates that one was exhibited in the gardens of the Zoological Society in 1849. The difficulty it has of accommodating itself to changed conditions probably has some connection with the very limited range or confined sphere of life of the species in its natural state, its native home being an area of swampy woods, not more than about sixty square miles in extent, although no permanent barrier exists to check its dispersal, except towards the south, over a much wider space. When I descended the river in 1859 we had with us a tame adult Uakari, which was allowed to ramble about the vessel, a large schooner. When we reached the mouth of the Rio Negro we had to wait four days, whilst the Custom-house officials at Barra, ten miles distant, made out the passports for our crew, and during this time the schooner lay close to the shore, with its bowsprit secured to the trees on the bank. Well, one morning Scarlet-face was missing, having made his escape into the forest. Two men were sent in search of him, but returned, after several hours’ absence, without having caught sight of the runaway. We gave up the Monkey for lost, until the following day, when he re-appeared on the skirts of the forest, and marched quietly down the bowsprit to his usual place on deck. He had evidently found the forests of the Rio Negro very different from those of the delta lands of the Japura, and preferred captivity to freedom in a place that was so uncongenial to him.“
THE BLACK-HEADED SAKI.[105]
This, like the last, must be enumerated among the more remarkable Monkeys of the New World, from all of which it is to be immediately distinguished by the extreme shortness of the tail, a structure which would seem to make it the representative of the Baboons of the Old Continent. It is, in fact, the only one hitherto discovered in America whose tail does not exceed three inches in length. It is altogether a small species, that described by Humboldt measuring little more than one foot five inches from the head to the feet. In its adult state, however, it is described as reaching the length of another foot. Its disposition is inactive, phlegmatic, but very docile. It eats with avidity all sorts of fruits—sweet or sour. These it will seize by stretching out both hands at once, bending the back and body at the same time in a forward attitude. The physiognomy has a much more human expression than that of the generality of Monkeys, particularly in the face, which is naked and black. Its profile is not much unlike the Ethiopian. The head is oval, but flattened on the sides. On the eyelids, mouth, and chin there are a few stiff hairs, but the chin has no beard. The ears are large, and like those of the human subject, are naked. The fur is long, shining, and of a uniform yellowish-brown colour over the whole of the body. The fingers are much lengthened, the nails rather flat; and the tail, notwithstanding its shortness, is thick, and almost naked towards its extremity. Broderip compares its face to one of the old withered negroes, who, by great respectability of conduct, have gained their freedom. Another variety is the White-headed Saki,[106] of which we give an illustration.
WHITE-HEADED SAKI.