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Show 187 l.j MR. P. L. SCLATER ON ANIMALS IN THE MENAGERIE. 225 I have now taken the typical specimen of __. variegatus to the British Museum, and compared it with the type of A. bartletti and with the specimen obtained from Mr. Gordon. The conclusion I have arrived at is that all three specimens are referable to one species. As to the two first there can, I think, be no doubt whatever, as they agree in every particular except in the smaller size and fainter tinge of the colour below in the Nattererian specimen, which is just what we should expect to fiud in the female. Mr. Gordon's example is still paler below, and shows no signs of the white stripe on the sides of the face. But there is a slight indication of the frontal spot, and the character of the hair on the head agrees completely with that of the other two specimens. On the whole, therefore, I believe that Dr. Gray was correct in referring Mr. Gordon's specimen to his A. bartletti (i.e. A. variegatus). In a recent article on the Mammals of Costa Rica*, Dr. A. von Frantzius states that a number of skins of an Ateles, collected by him in Costa Rica and sent to the Berlin Museum, were determined by Dr. Peters to be A. variegatus. This appeared to me to be such an extraordinary locality for the present species that I wrote to Dr. Peters to inquire on the subject. Dr. Peters informed m e that Dr. v. Frantzius had made a mistake, and that the only skins of Ateles received from Costa Rica by the Berlin Museum were, in his opinion, referable to A. frontatus (Gray), i. e. A. melanochirf. Dr. Slack, in his article on the prehensile-tailed Quadrumana";:, has likewise confounded Ateles variegatus with A. melanochir, describing A. variegatus as the male, and A. melanochir as the female of the same species! But the plate in Reichenbach's Atlas (Nat. d. Affen, pl. x. fig. 154), which is referred by Dr. Slack and Dr. Gray to A. melanochir, although not very good, as well as the description (p. 62), are both clearly intended for A. variegatus; indeed Reichenbach tells us that they were taken from the typical specimens of that species in the Vienna Museum. The synonyms of Ateles variegatus will therefore stand as follows :- ATELES VARIEGATUS. Ateles variegatus, Wagner, Saugeth. i. p. 313 (1840) ; ej. Abh. Acad. Munch, v. p. 420 (1847); ej. Saugeth. v. p. 78 (1855); Reichenbach, Affen, p. 62, pl. x. fig. 154 ; Sclater, Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. vi. p. 472 ; ej. P. Z. S. 1870, p. 668, 1871, p. 39. Sapajou geoffroii S, Slack, Proc. Ac. Sc. Phil. 1862, p. 511. Ateles bartletti, Gray, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 992, pl. xlvii. ( 6*) ; ej. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. vi. p. 428 ( $ jr.). * Arch. f. Nat. 18(59, pt. 1, p. 257. t Dr. v. Frantzius must likewise have made some strange mistake when he speaks of an Eriodes frontatus, Gray, from Costa Rica (I. s. c. p. 258). The genus Eriodes is, I believe, restricted to the wood-region of S.E. Brazil; and Brachyteles frontatus, Gray, is certainly a true Ateles. + Proc. Acad. Sc. Phil. 1862, p. 511. P R O C ZOOL. Soc-187L No. XV. |