Natural History Review/Series 2/Volume 1/Number 4/Note upon the northern limit of the Quadrumana in the New World
In looking through the plates and letterpress of Johnston's Physical Atlas and the works of other authorities who treat of the geographical distribution of the Mammalia, I have observed that the northern limit of the range of the Quadrumana in the New World is altogether incorrectly laid down, and that the species assigned to the countries north of the isthmus of Panama are wrongly named. Although I cannot pretend to be able to set this matter quite right, as the correct determination of the species of Quadrumana which inhabit the northern (or trans-panamanic) province of the Neotropical region must remain in abeyance, until more specimens of these animals have been brought to Europe from Central America, and their differential characters more carefully studied, yet I have been able to acquire, through the kindness of some of my correspondents and during visits to several Zoological Museums, some information upon this point which I hope will be sufficient to rectify a not unimportant error in geographical distribution.
Having paid much attention to the birds of Southern Mexico, Guatemala and the adjoining republics of Central America, I have found it a general rule that this northern portion of the great South-American (or Neotropical) region possesses specifically distinct representatives of all the more important groups which characterize the Ornithology of Tropical South America. It not unfrequently happens that these northern outliers of the genus are the finest in colouring and the most outré or exaggerated in form, of the whole group. In illustration of this remark I may adduce the case of the Guatemalan Cotinga (Cotinga amabilis)—certainly pre-eminent in coloration even among this lovely brotherhood. The naked-throated Umbrella-bird (Cephalopterus glabricollis) of Veragua, the Three wattled Fruit-eater (Chasmorhynchus tricarunculatus) of the same country, and the celebrated Long-tailed Trogon or Quesál of the mountains of Vera Paz (Trogon paradiseus) are other instances of the same kind, and the list might be still further extended without much difficulty. When the Quadrumana of the trans-panamanic province are properly worked out, I believe it will be found that each of the leading genera of Tropical America possesses a representative within the limits of this special Fauna.
But first as regards the northern limit of the Quadrumana in the New World. This is given in the plate of Johnston's Physical Atlas by a line across Honduras, which is supposed to mark the northern limit of Mycetes seniculus. But I know of no authority for the occurrence of this Mycetes in Honduras, and the true limit of the family must be fixed, as I shall presently show, much further north.
The well-known German Naturalist, Deppe, who travelled in Mexico in 1824-7, writes in a letter dated from Xalapa, Feb. 18th, 1825:—
"In Alvarado[1] we heard that 15 or 18 leagues further south on the St. Martin we should find Monkeys. On Christmas-day we set out in a canoe with Indians to Hacatalpa, and here took horses to go to the mountains eight leagues farther. Having arrived at the appointed spot we were informed to our great sorrow that the Monkeys had deserted this locality three weeks since for a spot where fruit was more abundant. There were three species described to me, (1) a large white one, 4 feet high; (2) a smaller one, 212 feet high (apparently the same as that which I now send); and (3) a small one quite black. I was told that they would return in the beginning of February in large troops."
Dr. W. Peters, the Director of the Museum at Berlin, who has most kindly supplied me with the above extract, adds,
"Mr. Deppe, who is still alive and whom I questioned about the specimen in our Museum writes to me, 'I bought the Ateles alive in Alvarado. It was caught by a Mexican about twenty hours distant from the city. Afterwards, on my journey from Caxaia to Alvarado, I watched, in a forest near Valle Beal, a great number of the same species for more than six hours together, but having no large shot I was unable to procure any.' Mr. Deppe told me afterwards that this Ateles was the only Monkey he got during his whole stay in Mexico from 1824 to 1827.
I have had the opportunity of examining this specimen in the Berlin Museum in company with Dr. Peters. It is an Ateles of a species allied to A. beelzebuth of Brazil and A. hybridus of New Granada, but probably referable to Ateles frontatus—Brachyteles (Eriodes) frontatus, Gray, (Voy. Sulphur). However this may be, it indubitably proves the existence of a species of this genus in Mexico, as far north as between 18° and 19° N.L. That this Ateles ranges still further north seems amply proved on the evidence of M. Auguste Sallé—the well-known Naturalist and traveller—from whom I have received the following communication relative to this subject:—
"La limite la plus nord ou on trouve des Singes à ma connaissance, est l'Etat de San Luis Potosi, aux environs du 23e dégré de latitude, dans le haut de la rivière de Tampico également. On en trouve une espèce dans les montagnes et lieux très déserts de l'Etat de Veracruz, aux environs de Cordova entre cette ville et Huatusco par le 19°. Je crois que c'est un Ateles, je ne sais pas au juste. Quoique très commun je ne l'ai pas vu aux Galeries du Museum, mais je tâcherai de vous en donner le nom; à Cordova on les nomme Changos. A la côte entre Veracruz et Tampico il y a de grandes forets ou en trouve. On dit qu 'il y en a deux espèces dans l'Etat de Chiapas."
In Guatemala Mr. Salvin informs me that Monkeys are rather scarce and difficult to be seen, but that three species have been described to him as existing there. Of one of them he has brought home an imperfect skin, which appears to be that of an Ateles.
In Nicaragua, M. Sallé states that he found four species of Quadrumana during his travels. Examples of two of these were purchased by the British Museum in 1848 through Mr. Cuming, and are now in the collection. One of the species is an Ateles (probably A. frontatus), the second is a Mycetes, described and figured by Dr. Gray in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1848[2] under the name M. palliatus, and erroneously stated to be from Caraccas.
Further south, in Costa Rica, Dr. Peters informs me that the late Dr. Hoffman, who up to the time of his lamented death, worked vigorously at the Fauna of this interesting region, met with three species of Quadrumana and forwarded examples of all to Berlin, namely,—
1. An Ateles, apparently the same as Deppe's Mexican specimen—though varying in colour. "This species," writes Dr. Hoffman, "varies very much in colour from red to to grey. It is called Mono Colorado, and has a flavour like mutton."
2. Mycetes palliatus, Gray.
3. Cebus hypoleucus, Geoffr., called in Costa Rica Mono caro biancho. "It bellows like a dog," says Dr. Hoffman.
The Zoological Society have lately received some living examples of the Hapale œdipus, said to have been obtained from Chiriqui, and Mr. Bridges during his residence at David, in the same country, procured a skeleton of a Chrysothrix, perhaps C. sciurea.
It thus appears evident that species of Monkeys of the genera Mycetes, Ateles, Cebus, Chrysothrix and Hapale are found northwards of the isthmus of Panama, and that the Ateles extends its range up to the 23° N.L.
This is all the information I have been enabled to collect concerning the Quadrumana of the trans-panamanic province. I sincerely trust that Mr. Salvin, who is now returning to Central America in company with Mr. Godwin, for the purpose of making collections in Natural History, will endeavour to render our knowledge of this subject more perfect. The ignorance which prevails concerning it is mainly attributable to the carelessness and negligence Naturalists have hitherto shown as to the record of precise localities.