_Simia rosalia_, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 41, pl. i. (1766).
_Midas rosalia_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 121 (1812).
_Leontopithecus rosalia_, Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 65 (1870).
_Hapale rosalia_, Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 250 (1876).
CHARACTERS.--This is the first species of the long-whiskered and maned
group; fur soft and silky; tail equal in length to the body, bushy at the
tip; hair round the face and on the back of the neck very long, forming a
conspicuous ruff. Face, hands, and feet purple; general colour of the hair
golden yellow, more or less red, and glossy.
These animals are said to possess an air-sac in the throat, at the back of
the _trachea_ (or windpipe), as in _Ateles_. Length, 11 inches; tail, 12
inches.
{139}DISTRIBUTION.--The Silky Tamarin is found in the forests of
South-eastern Brazil, in the coastal forests of New Granada, and as far
north as the Isthmus of Panama.
HABITS.--The "Marakina," as this exceedingly beautiful species is often
called, lives in small troops, ascending to the slender branches at the
tops of the highest trees in the forest. The species is very playful and
intelligent.
Closely related to the Silky Tamarin, if indeed it is really distinct from
it, is the Maned Tamarin (_M. leoninus_, of Humboldt), which inhabits the
same region, and is only seven inches in length, exclusive of the tail. "It
is named _leoninus_," remarks Mr. Bates, "on account of the long brown mane
which depends from the neck, and which gives it very much the appearance of
a diminutive Lion." In referring to their intelligence, the same writer
continues, "Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire relates of a species of this
genus, that it distinguished between different objects depicted on an
engraving. M. Audouin showed it the portraits of a cat and a wasp; at these
it became much terrified, whereas at the sight of a figure of a grasshopper
or beetle it precipitated itself on the picture as if to seize the objects
there represented."
Another species, the Golden-headed Tamarin (_M. chrysomelas_, of Kuhl),
which is in general colour black, with the head, fore-arms, hands, and a
line beneath the tail, golden-yellow, is, according to Dr. Gray, "very like
a melanism of _Leontopithecus_ (= _Midas_) _rosalia_; but the hands and
feet, which are sometimes blackish in that species, are yellow--that is to
say, not changed."