ORDEE PRIMATES: PRIMATES 163 



This rather strikingly colored subspecies is known only from a 

 circumscribed area in the Uzungwe Mountains to the northeast of 

 Lake Tanganyika. The name was based on a single imperfect skin 

 found in a native hut and two other skins secured by the brothers 

 von Gordon, for whom it is named. In 1923 Kershaw recorded an- 

 other specimen secured in the same region by Arthur Loveridge, 

 who on a second visit obtained four others for the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology. 



The top of the head is deep ferruginous, the back shining black; 

 forelimbs black, hind limbs mixed black and silvery, the tail mixed 

 black and ochraceous; lower surfaces white. 



On the somewhat isolated Uzungwe Mountain range Mr. Loveridge 

 found this monkey but once, when at an altitude of some 5,000 feet 

 he came upon a troop just at dusk. They live in high forest and are 

 with difficulty obtained. Their nearest relative is perhaps Kirk's 

 Red Colobus of Zanzibar. Their chief danger is perhaps from native 

 hunters, but also possibly in future encroachments upon the small 

 area of forest to which they are confined. 



G. M. A. 



Kirk's Red Colobus 



COLOBUS BADIUS KIRKII Gray 



Colobus kirkii Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1868, p. 180, May, 1868. ("Zan- 

 zibar.") 

 FIGS.: Gray, op. cit., pi. 15; Elliot, 1913, vol. 3, pi. 16 (skull). 



Restricted to the Island of Zanzibar, this form is in danger only 

 to the extent that future settlement and cultivation may reduce its 

 area of habitat. 



Forehead and sides of head yellowish white, the long hairs extend- 

 ing beyond the sides of the head; crown, lower part of neck, back 

 from shoulders, reddish brown; shoulders, outer side of arms, hands 

 and feet black; throat and under parts grayish white; tail dull 

 reddish brown. 



The chief interest of this monkey, apart from its island habitat 

 to which no member of the black-and-white group extends, is that 

 in the skull the median frontal suture remains open into adult life, 

 a rare condition sometimes found also in man. 



This monkey was first secured and sent to Europe by Sir John 

 Kirk in 1868. He regarded it as rare at that time but in 1884 wrote 

 that it was still to be found in many of the wooded districts of the 

 island, although "so rare as not to be procurable, even when I sent 

 the hunters over the island. I have a report that it exists still in 

 one spot, which they could not reach. ... It looks as if the animal 

 will be lost to science. This is due to the destruction of forest and 

 jungle over the island." Two years later Sir Harry Johnston wrote 



