SEMNOPITHECUS ver PRESBYTES. 2a 
movements, which are completely in character with its snowy beard and 
venerable aspect. In disposition it is gentle and confiding, sensible in 
the highest degree of kindness, and eager for endearing attention, 
uttering a low plaintive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is 
particularly cleanly in its habits when domesticated, and spends much 
of its time in trimming its fur and carefully divesting its hair of particles 
of dust. Those which I kept at my house near Colombo were chiefly fed 
upon plantains and bananas, but for nothing did they evince a greater 
partiality than the rose-coloured flowers of the red hibiscus (4 rosa 
sinensis). These they devoured with unequivocal gusto; they likewise 
relished the leaves of many other trees, and even the bark of a few of 
the more succulent ones.’ 
No. 14. SEMNOPITHECUS ve/ PRESBYTES URSINUS. 
The Great Wanderu. 
Native NaMe.—Maha Wanderu. 
HapitTat.—The mountainous district of Ceylon. 
DeEscrIPTION.—Fur long, almost uniformly greyish black ; whiskers 
full and white ; occiput and croup in old specimens paler coloured ; 
hands and feet blackish; tail long, getting lighter towards the lower 
half. The young and adults under middle age have a rufous tint, 
corresponding with that of the head of all ages. 
S1zE.—Body about 22 inches ; tail, 26 inches. 
The name Wanderu is a corruption of the Singhalese generic word 
for monkey, Ouandura, or Wandura, which bears a striking resem- 
blance to the Hindi Bandra, commonly called Bandar—é and v being 
interchangeable—and is evidently derived from the Sanscrit Aanur, 
which in the south again becomes /Vanur, and further south, in Ceylon, 
Wandura. There has been a certain amount of confusion between this 
animal and Jyuwus silenus, the lion monkey, which had the name 
Wanderu applied to it by Buffon, and it is so figured in Cuvier. They 
are both large monkeys, with great beards of light coloured hair, but in 
no other respect do they resemble. Sir Emerson Tennent says: “ It 
is rarely seen by Europeans, this portion of the country having till very 
recently been but partially opened; and even now it is difficult to 
observe its habits, as it seldom approaches the few roads which wind 
through these deep solitudes. At early morning, ere the day begins to 
dawn, its loud and peculiar howl, which consists of quick repetition of 
the sound how-how / may be frequently heard in the mountain jungles, 
and forms one of the characteristic noises of these lofty situations.” 
This was written in 1861 ; since then much of the mountainous forest 
land has been cleared for coffee-planting, and the Wanderu either 
