File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17974356449).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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FAUNAL CONDITIONS IN THE CANAL ZONE 241 young fruit district only recently made accessible by high water, chose this time to burn over some clearings and we found that the smoke materially interfered with our success. Cameras with flash lights and bait were set out in promising spots, lines of traps for mammals were run daily, while the jungle was hunted in hopes of shooting specimens. It was at this spot that we made the acquaintance of the largest of the Pana- manian monkeys, the " black howlers." Frequently their queer booming, roaring, howl echoed through the jungle, a call that carries for long distances. They howl oftenest just before or dur- ing a rain storm and the natives thus look upon them as weather prophets. Upon one occasion I stood almost under some trees through which a troop was passing, while the first big pre- liminary drops of a sudden shower pattered upon the leaves about me. The volume of sound that issued from the black shaggy throats was so great and so suggestive of a large animal, a lion for example, that I found it hard to reconcile myself to the actual facts. I felt a pang of regret at silencing one of the "howlers" but as a specimen was needed I shot one of the foremost and heard him crash through the limbs to the ground. Pangs of a more effective sort were experienced when my na- tive boy and I attempted to retrieve the monkey, for he had fallen underneath ^a bees' nest the size of a bushel basket and we found the nest too late to avoid it. Other interesting mammals encountered here were the pretty squirrel-like marmoset, the short- haired anteater and several species of opossum, while we were continually won- dering at the \'ariety of the bird life and the diversity of the bird songs and call- notes. The noisy parrots that shouted in the morning until the jungle rang with their tumult, the grotesque toucans which at times vied with the parrots, the calling of the parrakeets and the peculiar chorus-like calls of the chachalaca, or "wild turkey," produced an impression that must ever be associated with jungle memories. At night mysterious noises were heard from unknown sources and one weird laughing call in particular
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The black howler, the largest of the Panamanian monkeys, is looked upon by the natives as a weather prophet, its loud, long and reverberating howl being most frequently heard just preceding a heavy rain

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