72 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



in the northwest. It appears not to be found below five thousand feet, and in 

 the interior of Sikhim it ranges as high as twelve thousand feet. One of the first, 

 if not actually the first record of the occurrence of the Himalayan langur in the 

 interior of Sikhim will be found in Sir J. W. Hooker's Himalayan Journals. The 

 author of that charming book of travel says, on arriving at a Tatar village, at an 

 elevation of about nine thousand feet : "I saw a troop of large monkej'S gamboling 

 in a wood of Abies brunoniana ; this surprised me, as I was not prepared to find so 

 tropical an animal associated with a vegetation typical of a boreal climate." 

 Other writers have observed these langurs in the outer ranges of the Himalayas in 

 the neighborhood of the hill stations of Simla or Mussuri, leaping from bough to 

 bough of the snow-clad pines and deodars. And the present writer was himself 

 once sufficiently fortunate to behold a similar sight when crossing a pass called the 

 Rutten Pir, in the mountains to the south of the valley of Kashmir. On a sudden, 

 when passing through a forest composed partly of pines and deodar cedars and 

 partly of rhododendrons, a whole troop of these langurs dashed across the path, 

 springing from tree to tree, and scattering in all directions the thick wreaths of 

 snow with which the dark fir boughs were concealed, the season of the year being 

 the middle of the spring. 



In the autumn these langurs are to be found in large droves in the extensive 

 forests of the higher valleys surrounding Kashmir. Here they are a decided 

 nuisance to the hunter, as their cries will not unfrequently alarm the deer or bear 

 which he may be pursuing. Desirous of .securing a skull, the writer was once 

 tempted to shoot a large male out of one of these droves ; but the cries and ex- 

 pression of the poor wounded brute were so human-like that he never again could 

 persuade himself to shoot a monkey of any kind. 



THE MADRAS LANGUR {Semnopithecus priamus) 



In Madras and Ceylon the hanuman is represented by an allied species known 

 as the Madras langur (S. priamus}, distinguished by possessing a distinct crest 

 of hair on the crown of the head, and by the upper surfaces of the feet and hands 

 not being black. The following account of the habits of this species is taken from 

 Sir J. Emerson Tennent's Natural History of Ceylon, where all the langurs are 

 known as wanderus. The Madras langur ' ' inhabits the northern and eastern dis- 

 tricts and the wooded hills which occur in these portions of the island. In ap- 

 pearance it differs both in size and color from the common wanderu (S. 

 cephalopterus} , being larger and more often grayish ; and in habits it is much less 

 reserved. At Jaffna, and in other parts of the island where the population is 

 numerous, these monkeys become so familiarized with the presence of man as to 

 exhibit the utmost daring and indifference. A flock of them will take possession 

 of a palmyra palm ; and so effectually can they crouch and conceal themselves 

 among the leaves that, on the slightest alarm, the whole party becomes invisible in 

 an instant. The presence of a dog excites, however, such an irrepressible curiosity 

 that, in order to watch his movements, they never fail to betray themselves. 

 They may frequently be seen congregated on the roof of a native hut ; and, some 



