HYLoBATES. II 
birds. Dr. Anderson notices the following as favourite leaves : AZoringa 
pterygosperma (horse-radish tree), Spondias mangifera (amra), Ficus 
religiosa (the pipal), also Beta vulgaris ; and it is specially partial to the 
Lpomea reptans (the water convolvulus) and the bright-coloured flowers 
of the Indian shot (Cazna Jndica). Of insects it prefers spiders and the 
Orthoptera ; eggs and small birds are also eagerly devoured. 
No. 2. HYLOBATES LAR. 
The White-handed Gibbon. 
Hasitat.—Arracan, Lower Pegu, Tenasserim, and the Malayan 
Peninsula. 
DESCRIPTION.—“ This species is generally recognisable by its pale 
yellowish, almost white hands and feet, by the grey, almost white, 
supercilium, whiskers and beard, and by the deep black of the rest of 
the pelage.”—Anderson. 
Size.—About same as . hooluck. 
It is, however, found in every variety of colour, from black to brownish, 
and variegated with light-coloured patches, and occasionally of a 
fulvous white. For a long time I supposed it to be synonymous with 
fT, agilis of Cuvier, or . variegatus of Temminck, but both Mr. Blyth 
and Dr. Anderson separate it. Blyth mentions a significant fact 
in distinguishing the two Indian Gibbons, whatever be their variations 
of colour, viz.: ‘‘H. hooluck has constantly a broad white frontal 
band either continuous or divided in the middle, while H /ar has 
invariably white hands and feet, less brightly so in some, and a white 
ring encircling the visage, which is seldom incomplete.” * 
ff, lar has sometimes the index and middle fingers connected by a 
web, as in the case of &. syndactylus (a Sumatran species very distinct 
in other respects). The very closely allied A agilis has also this 
peculiarity in occasional specimens. This Gibbon was called “ agilis” 
by Cuvier from its extreme rapidity in springing from branch to 
branch. Duvaucel says: ‘‘ The velocity of its movements is wonder- 
ful; it escapes like a bird on the wing. Ascending rapidly to the top 
of a tree, it then seizes a flexible branch, swings itself two or three 
times to gain the necessary impetus, and then launches itself forward, 
repeatedly clearing in succession, without effort and without fatigue, 
spaces of forty feet.” 
Sir Stamford Raffles writes that it is believed in Sumatra that it is so 
jealous that if in captivity preference be given to one over another, the ~ 
neglected one will die of grief; and he found that one he had sickened 
* There is an excellent coloured drawing by Wolf of these two Gibbons in the 
‘Proceedings of the,Zoological Society,’ 1870, page 86, from which I have partly 
adapted the accompanying sketch. 
