THE LANGURS 77 



parts of Ceylon, and ascend to much greater elevations ; the former variety being 

 especially abundant in the high mountains in the neighborhood of the town of 

 Newera Ellia. 



Sir Emerson Tennent, writing of the typical purple-faced monkey, 

 which he terms the wanderu of the low country, says that it is 

 far the commonest of the Singalese langurs, and that, "It is an active and intelli- 

 gent creature, little larger than the common bonneted macaque, and far from 

 being so mischievous as the other monkeys in the island. In captivity it is 

 remarkable for the gravity of its demeanor, and for an air of melancholy in 

 its expression and 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 affection, 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 exhibit a greater partiality than the rose-colored flowers of 

 the red hibiscus. 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. ' ' 



After referring to the white monkey, which he regards as merely a variety of 

 the lowland wanderu, Sir Emerson Tennent proceeds with his account of the latter, 

 and states that, " When observed in their native wilds, a party of twenty or thirty 

 of these creatures is generally busily engaged in the search for berries and buds. 

 They are seldom to be seen on the ground, except when they may have descended 

 to recover seeds or fruit which have fallen at the foot of their favorite trees. 

 When disturbed, their leaps are prodigious ; but, generally speaking, their progress 

 is made not so much by leaping as by swinging from branch to branch, using 

 their powerful arms alternately ; and, when baffled by distance, flinging themselves 

 obliquely so as to catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the momentum 

 caused by their descent being sufficient to cause a rebound of the branch, that 

 carries them upward again till they grasp a higher and more distant one, and thus 

 continue their headlong flight. In these perilous achievements wonder is excited 

 less by the surpassing agility of these little creatures (frequently encumbered as 

 they are by their young, which cling to them in their career) than by the quickness 

 of their eye and the unerring accurracy with which they seem almost to calculate 

 the angle at which a descent will enable them to cover a given distance, and the 

 recoil to attain a higher altitude. ' ' 



The same writer then goes on to say that in the hills the typical black form 

 of this monkey is replaced by the so-called bear monkey. ' ' The natives, who 

 designate the latter as the Maha, or Great Wanderu, to distinguish it from the 

 Kala, or Black one (the typical purple-faced monkey), with which they are familiar, 

 describe it as much wilder and more powerful than its congener of the lowland 

 forests. 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 



