474 nCltMA, ITS PEOPLE AM) PRODUCTIOXS. 



Ordtr PRIMATES. 



Sub-order LEMURIA. 



Famihj Nycticebidse. 



Nyciickhus, GiotlVuy. 



N. TAiiiticu.vBUs, F. Cut. 



The monkey's concubine. Myouk-moung-ma. 



Head round, witb short muzzle. Ear short and hairy. Tail short. Eyes large, 

 approximate. Colour dark ashy grey, paler below, with a dark vertebral streak. 

 Ears and space round the eyes dark. 



The slow loris, Dr. Mason remarks, is not abundant in Eurma, an<l "the Karens 

 say that \Nere it to enter a town, that town would assuredly be destroyed." 



Sub-order CHIROPODA. 

 Tribe CATARHINI. 

 Dr. Mason thus prefaces his early account of the monkeys of Burma: " ' Tlie 

 Quadrumana,' says Agassiz (deservedly deemed the greatest of living zoologists), 'are 

 limited on all the continents to the warmest regions, and but rarely penetrate into 

 the temperate zone. This is a natural consequence of the distribution of the Palms, 

 for these trees, which constitute the ruling feature of the flora of the tropics, furnisli, 

 to a great extent, the food of the monkeys.' There are more than half a dozen of 

 the quadi-umana, or monkey tribe, in this country, and it will be new to European 

 naturalists to learn that they draw a very small portion of their sustenance from the 

 Palms. The 'Gibbons' eat the fruit of the ' fieus,' which genus probably furnishes 

 more fruit in this country than all the palms together. The flowers of the ' cotton 

 trees' {Bumha.r), whose fleshy calicos afford much nutriment, the largo flowers of the 

 ' Dillcnid,' and many others, are much sought by tlie white-eyelid monkeys, wliilo 

 the monkeys on the streams, besides shell-fish and craljs, eat the tender shoots of reeds 

 and bamboos. All the species eat wild plantains, which are very abundant." 



Famihj Hylobatidae. 



Tailless arboreal apes or Gibbons. 



HrLOB.VTES. 



H. nooLOCK, Harlan. 



The white-browed gibbon. Myouk hlwai-kyau (generic). 



Colour varies from sullied white, or fulvcscent, to black. A broad white 

 frontal band. 



Ranges from the Brahmaputra to the Irrawaddy. 



H. LAE, L. 



The white-handed gibbon. 



Colour much as in 77. hoolock, ])ut the hands and feet are invariably white, and 

 the face is encircled with white. 



Inhabits the Tenasserim Provinces and Siara. 



Blyth remarks: "Both the whito-browod and the white-handed gibbons vary 

 exceedingly in sluide of hue, from black to sullied white and pale fulvescent; the two 

 sexes equally of H. lar, but the females only, so far as I have seen, of //. hoolock. 

 The males of the latter would appear to bo constantly l)lack, the females rarely so, at 

 least in Assam, though according to Colonel Tickell both sexes of it are always black 

 in Arakan. A pale specimen from Sandoway has nevcrtludess been recorded. Wliat- 

 cver the rest of the colouriiig nuiy be, //. honlndc has constantly a broad white frontal 

 band either continuous oi- divided in the middle ; while II. liir has invariably white 

 bauds and feet, less brightly so, in some, and a white ring, cncii'cling the visage. 



