_Ateles marginatus_ (nec Humb.), Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xiii., p. 92, pl. 10
(1809); Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 24 (1820); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus.,
p. 43 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 174 (1876).
_Coaita à front blanc, femelle_, Fr. Cuv., Hist. Nat. Mamm., livr. lxii.
(Avril, 1830).
_Ateles frontalis_, Bennett, P. Z. S., 1831, p. 38.
CHARACTERS.--Similar in size and coloration to _A. paniscus_. Body lean;
hair moderately long and coarse. Face naked, black, except the skin round
the eyes, which is flesh-coloured; general colour black; under surface of
body and inner sides of limbs, ashy-grey. It differs from _A. paniscus_ by
having the forehead, crown of head, a spot on each side of the nose, and
the whiskers, white.
A specimen in the British Museum has four pre-molars in each upper jaw,
instead of the normal three of the _Cebidæ_.
DISTRIBUTION.--This species was discovered by Humboldt on the banks of the
Santiago river. Mr. Bates says "it is never met with in the alluvial plains
of the Amazons," nor, he believes, on the northern side of the great
river-valley, except towards its head-waters near the Andes.
HABITS.--According to Von Humboldt, this Spider-Monkey--known as the
"White-Whiskered Coaita"--is very fierce and libidinous. Mr. Bates
encountered this large and handsome species on the Cupari river, a
tributary of the Tapajos, one {240}of the large southern affluents of the
Amazon. Here he could get scarcely anything but fish to eat, and, as this
diet did not agree with him, he was obliged to have recourse to the Coaita
flesh. "I thought," he says, "the meat the best flavoured I have ever
tasted. It resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste.... We
smoke-dried the joints instead of salting them; placing them for several
hours on a framework of sticks arranged over a fire. Nothing but the
hardest necessity could have driven me so near to cannibalism as this, but
we had the greatest difficulty in obtaining here a sufficient supply of
animal food." Von Humboldt has also referred to the cooking of these
Monkeys by the natives of the Upper Orinoko. "The manner of roasting these
anthropomorphous animals," he writes, "contributes singularly to render
their appearance disagreeable in the eyes of civilised Man. A little
grating or lattice of very hard wood is formed, and raised one foot from
the ground. The Monkey is skinned and bent into a sitting posture; the head
generally resting on the arms, which are meagre and long; but sometimes
these are crossed behind the back. When it is tied on the grating a very
clear fire is kindled below.... On seeing the natives devour an arm or leg
of a roasted Monkey, it is difficult not to believe that this habit of
eating animals which so much resemble Man in their physical organisation,
has in a certain degree contributed to diminish the horror of anthropophagy
among savages. Roasted Monkeys, particularly those that have a very round
head, display a hideous resemblance to a child; the Europeans, therefore,
who are obliged to feed on Quadrumanes, prefer separating the head and the
hands, and serve up only the rest of the animal at their tables. The flesh
of Monkeys is so lean and dry that Mr. Bonpland has {241}preserved in his
collections at Paris an arm and hand, which had been boiled over the fire
at Esmeraldas; and no smell arises from them after a great number of
years."