With Flashlight and Ritic ^ 



food in plenty in the foliage of the tree where it lives, 

 this animal, like so many others — like the elk of the 

 northern forests, for example — has become settled in its 

 habits, and won't alter them the least little bit. Its huge 

 stomach, which never seems to leave off digesting, requires 

 an incredible quantity of aromatic leaves of various 

 kinds, for only now and again does the mbega consume 

 fruits. It seems to dislike any other form of nourish- 

 ment, although it may sometimes seek birds' eggs or 

 young birds. Towards morning, and even during the 

 day, these monkeys indulge in a peculiar kind of chorus, 

 which is hard to describe — a kind of humming and 

 buzzing that the uninitiated would never suppose came 

 from an monkey. 



Early in the morning, when a thick mist lies on the 

 forests and a saturating dew hangs in heavy drops on 

 leaves and branches, and everywhere silence still prevails, 

 this chorus of the monkeys, beginning softly, swells into a 

 mighty sound, then dies away, only to begin afresh. This 

 enables the hunter to find the " ob goroi " of the Masai 

 very easily. He has but to look up to the great summits 

 of the /ujiipei^us procera and other forest giants to see 

 the quaint minstrels as, with tremendous leaps, they take 

 to flight. Besides this chanting, the mbega frequently 

 gives out a short grunting noise. 



In the autumn of 1899 1 was first able to ascertain 

 that the guereza monkeys are snow-white when born, 

 and that their colouring comes gradually afterwards. I 

 discovered, too, that they were much tortured by a 

 kind of tick {Ixodes schillingsi) in some forests. These 



542 



