_Ateles geoffroyi_, Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 26 (1820); Schl., Mus. Pays
Bas, vii., p. 181 (1876); Alston, in Godman and Salvin, Biol. Centr.
Amer. Mamm., p. 8 (1879).
_Ateles melanochir_, Desmar., Mamm., p. 76 (1820); Gray, Cat. Monkeys
Brit. Mus., p. 43 (1870); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 226, pl. xv., 1875,
p. 419, pls. xlviii. and xlix.
_Eriodes frontatus_, Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist., x., p. 256 (1842); id. Voy.
H.M.S. "Sulphur," Zool., p. 9, pl. i.; Scl., P. Z. S., 1882, p. 186; Von
Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg., xxxv., 1869, pp. 257, 258.
_Sapajou geoffroyi_, Slack, Pr. Ac. Sc. Philad., 1862, p. 511 (= female).
_Ateles variegatus_ (nec Wagn.), Von Frantzius, Arch. f. Naturg., xxxv.,
1869, p. 257.
_Ateles hybridus_, _A. ornatus_ et _A. albifrons_, Gray, Cat. Monkeys
Brit. Mus., pp. 43 and 44 (1870).
CHARACTERS.--Body light greyish-drab all over; hands, elbows, feet, knees,
and the upper side of the extremity of the tail, black; face black, with
the exception of the lips and a ring round the eyes, broad above and narrow
below, flesh-coloured. Hair of forehead reflexed, meeting that of the crown
above the eyes, forming a triangular patch of erect black hairs. Top of the
head and upper part of the tail buff. Length of body, 17 inches; of tail,
21 inches. Thumb entirely wanting.
This species is remarkably variable. The description given above belongs to
the form described as _A. melanochir_ by {234}Desmarest from the same
specimen in Paris, which Kuhl described under the name of _A. geoffroyi_.
Every gradation is to be met with between this and the form described by
Dr. Gray as _A. ornatus_, in which the face is entirely black, the whiskers
pale reddish-yellow, the patch of erect black hair on the forehead
yellowish at its base; the top of the head, sides, lower back, rump, upper
part of the arms, outer, inner and posterior portion of the thighs and
legs, and under side of the base of the tail, brownish-red; nape, shoulders
and remainder of the tail reddish-brown, washed with black; lower part of
arms, fore-arms, hands, feet, and anterior aspect of thighs and legs,
black.
In some specimens the grey, or reddish-black colour, merges on the under
surface, into yellowish-cream, or rufous, and the black wash is more or
less distributed.
Mr. Alston, in speaking of this species, remarks that the best character by
which the darker (_A. ornatus_) forms may be distinguished from our next
species (_A. rufiventris_) is the want of a distinct line of demarcation
between the colours of the upper and lower parts, the tint of the flanks,
whatever it may be, passing almost insensibly into that of the breast and
belly in all the varieties.
DISTRIBUTION.--The variation in colour described above is not due to local
causes, every variety occurring between the lightest and darkest, in all
the regions which this species is known to inhabit. The localities from
which it has been recorded are on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of
Nicaragua; Costa Rica, where it occurs in large numbers from the coast
forests up to nearly 7,000 feet on the mountains; Panama, and the U.S. of
Colombia.
HABITS.--Geoffroy's Spider-Monkey is gregarious and arboreal,
{235}frequenting the highest trees of the forest, both in the low country
and at high elevations, and living on fruits and insects, but chiefly on
the former. Mr. Belt relates that on the banks of the Antigua he saw a
valuable tree, the "Nispera" (_Achras sapota_), growing on the dryer
ridges. "It bears a round fruit about the size of an apple, hard and heavy
when green, and at this time it is much frequented by the large
yellowish-brown Spider-Monkey (_Ateles_), which roams over the tops of the
trees in bands of from ten to twenty. Sometimes they lay quite quiet until
I was passing underneath, when, shaking a branch of the Nispera tree, they
would send down a shower of the hard round fruit; but fortunately I was
never struck by them. As soon as I looked up they would commence yelping
and barking and putting on the most threatening gestures, breaking off
pieces of branches and letting them fall, and shaking off more fruit, but
never throwing anything, simply letting it fall.[13] Often when on lower
trees, they would hang from the branches, two or three together, holding on
to each other and to the branch with their fore-feet and long tail, whilst
their hind-feet hung down, all the time making threatening gestures and
cries. Sometimes a female would be seen carrying a young one on its back,
to which it clung with legs and tail, the mother making its way along the
branches, and leaping from tree to tree, apparently but little encumbered
by its baby. A large black and white Eagle is said to prey upon them, but I
never saw one, although I was constantly falling in with troops of the
Monkeys. Don Francisco Velasquez, one of our officers, told me that one day
he heard a Monkey crying out in the forest for more than two hours, and at
last, going to see what was {236}the matter, he saw a Monkey on a branch
and an Eagle beside it trying to frighten it to turn its back, when it
would have seized it. The Monkey, however, kept its face to its foe....
Velasquez fired at the Eagle, and frightened it away. I think it likely,
from what I have seen of the habits of this Monkey, that they defend
themselves from the Eagle's attack by keeping two or three together, thus
assisting each other, and that it is only when the bird finds one separated
from its companions that it dares to attack it."
Mr. Osbert Salvin met with several of these Monkeys near the town of San
Juan del Sur, in Nicaragua. He was walking up the course of a half-dry
stream when he came upon a troop of Monkeys which had come to a pool to
drink, and were climbing about the low trees on the bank of the
watercourse. Most of the troop consisted of _Cebus hypoleucus_, but with
them were several _Ateles_ of the present species, of one of which Mr.
Salvin wrote a description as it sat jabbering at him and throwing down
sticks from a branch above his head. Mr. Salvin also told Mr. Alston that
it was not unusual to see Monkeys kept in confinement in the court-yards of
the Spanish houses in Guatemala. Amongst them were occasionally to be seen
specimens of Geoffroy's Spider-Monkey; but he always found that they had
been brought from Nicaragua or Costa Rica, the species not extending into
Guatemala.