CONTRIBUTIONS 



TO THE 



KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE MONKEYS 



OF BELGIAN CONGO 



Einar LONNBERQ 



The knowledge about the African Monkeys cannot be said to 

 be satisfactory, neither from a taxonomic, nor from a zoogeogra- 

 phical point of view. The material, on which the différent authors 

 hâve based their descriptions of the species or subspecies, has often 

 been rather scanty, sometimes incomplète. In many cases the origin 

 of the type-specimens has been uncertain. Especiallv this has been 

 the case, when spécimens in Zoological Gardens hâve been des- 

 cribed. They were perhaps reported to hâve come from one country 

 or the other, but they might hâve been traded from quite diflerent 

 places originallv. A similar uncertainty prevails also when the 

 « tvpe » has consisted of a native skin. The variation of the diffé- 

 rent species cannot be understood, when only one, or a few spéci- 

 mens are at hand. Therefore individual variations hâve sometimes 

 been regarded as subspecies, or even species. For similar reasons 

 there has often been impossible to obtain any clear idea about the 

 geographical distribution of the différent forms. 



