THE YELLOW-TAILED HOWLER.[78] The last half of the tail of this species is of a brilliant golden-fawn colour, and this tint is on the upper parts of the body nearly up to the shoulders; the rest of the tail is light maroon, and what remains of the body is dark maroon, there being a violet tint in the limbs. Besides its colours this kind presents some points of interest. They live in companies, and when they pass from one tree to another they all play at follow-my-leader exactly. They watch the movements of those which precede them, jump in the same manner, and at the same place, and even place their feet and hands on the same spots on the boughs. They are found in Columbia and New Granada, and in Brazil on the confines of Paraguay. The limbs of all the Mycetes are long, and whilst there is a good toe-thumb to the foot, the very best of the hand-thumbs is not equal to those of the Monkeys of the Old World. The nails on the fingers and toes are compressed from side to side, as it were, and begin to look like claws. Ogilby, an admirable observer, noticed years ago that two Howlers did not use their hands so as to take things between the thumb and forefinger, and he ascertained that this thumb was so much on a line with the other fingers that it was not opposable in the ordinary sense of the word, and that it was more like an extra finger than a thumb. This, he noticed, was not the case with the Howlers alone, but that it peculiarised the Monkeys of the New World. The examination of their skeletons shows that the bones of the thumb are on the same plane or level as the fingers, and the whole is brought close to the fingers, as our great toe is to the other toes. Nevertheless, this thumb can move to and from the fingers. [Illustration: BONES OF THE TAIL OF THE HOWLER.]