60 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



Colonel Tickell has given an excellent account of this gibbon, 

 both in its wild state and in confinement. It appears from this 

 description that the white-handed gibbon is somewhat more heavily built and less 

 agile than the hoolock (to be noticed next), while it walks on the ground less 

 steadily. It is also said to differ from the hoolock in its manner of drinking 

 scooping up water in its hands, and thus carrying it to its mouth, instead of 

 applying its mouth directly to the surface of the water. The same observer also 

 notices a great difference in the voices of the two species. The white-handed 

 gibbons are also stated to go in smaller parties than the other species ; the number 

 in a drove, according to Colonel Tickell, being usually from six to twenty. They 

 depend almost entirely on their hands in passing from bough to bough, and use 

 their feet to carry food. He has seen a drove of these apes escape in this manner 

 with the plunder stolen from a garden made by the Karen tribes near the forests 

 which they frequent. Like other species of the group, the white-handed gibbon 

 almost invariably has but a single young one at a time. The young are born at 

 the commencement of the winter season, and cling to the body of the mother for 

 nearly seven months, after which they shift for themselves. 



THE HOOLOCK (Hylobates hoolock:) 



One of the best known of all the gibbons is the hoolock, or white-browed gib- 

 bon, which, as we have said, takes its name from its characteristic dissyllabic cry. 

 This is the only species which occurs in India, where it is confined to the north- 

 eastern districts, being found in the hill ranges south of the Assam valley, as well 

 as in the provinces of Sylhet, Cachar, and Manipur. Thence it ranges to the east 

 and southwards into the hill-forests of the Irawadi valley near Bhamo, in Upper 

 Burma, and in the neighborhood of Chittagong and Arakan. It may also occur 

 near Martaban, in Upper Tenasserim, and the extent of its range on the east side 

 of the Irawadi river is not yet definitely determined. 



The hoolock may be readily distinguished from the white-handed gibbon by the 

 presence of a white or gray band across the eyebrows, and also by the whole of 

 the rest of the head, as well as the upper surfaces of the hands and feet, being 

 of the same color as the body. This general color varies from black to a light 

 yellowish-gray, the females being generally paler than the males. As we have 

 seen, their build is rather lighter, while their habits are more active than those of 

 the last-named species. 



All who have written of the hoolock agree as to its docile and en- 

 gaging disposition, and the readiness with which, even when adult, it 

 can be thoroughly tamed in a short space of time. Writing of a pet hoolock, 

 formerly in his possession, Mr. R. A. Sterndale, in his Mammalia of India says : 

 "Nothing contented him so much as being allowed to sit by my side with his arm 

 linked through mine, and he would resist any attempt I made to go away. He 

 was extremely clean in his habits, which cannot be said of all the monkey tribe. 

 Soon after he came to me I gave him a piece of blanket to sleep on in his box, but 

 the next morning I found he had rolled it up and made a sort of pillow for his 



