THE MONKEY FAMILY 



Roosevelt Bags a White-Tailed Colobus Monkey — Facts About This Curious Animal — 

 The Gorilla, the Chimpanzee and Other More or Less Manlike Apes — Africa the 

 Paradise of the Monkey. 



When in search for big game in the Sotiic district around picturesque 

 snow-capped Mount Kenia the American hunting expedition came across 

 one of the most interesting varieties of the great family of monkeys — the 

 colobus. Mounted on his faithful Tranquillity the Colonel was traversing 

 the endless undulating expanses of grassy country, adorned by giant trees, 

 which in this volcanic region meet the eye and now and then change into 

 barren plains, grass-covered plateaus, and deep valleys wedged in between 

 craggy ridges and naked rocks. He was in the beautiful Rift valley. Count- 

 less voices of the wilderness resounded around him. From all sides, from 

 every spot, every direction came cries, mingled with curious chirpings of un- 

 known birds, and loud-sounding trumpet-notes from brightly colored winged 

 songsters break on the ear. The next moment every sound dies away and 

 there is deathlike silence all around. 



But suddenly there broke forth a remarkable sound, rising and again fall- 

 ing, as the ex-President listened, a strange music of a most peculiar kind. 

 It was the chatter of the colobus monkeys, a sound that cannot be described 

 in words. A party of these wonderful creatures seemed to be in good humor, 

 for their song came to our hunter in chorus unceasingly, and in rising 

 strength, now swelling strongly out, now quietly dying away. The Colonel 

 selected a fine old male for the National Museum, and it tumbled down 

 from the branches of a tall banana-palm, pierced through the brain by a swift 

 rifle bullet, the whole herd precipitously set off at a scare and disappeared in 

 the thicket, where they could no more be reached. 



The white-tailed colobus, thus killed by Mr. Roosevelt, is one of the most 

 interesting members of the monkey family. It is keenly hunted for the sake 

 of its beautiful fur, and its peculiar song often betrays it to the hunter. It 

 is shy and retiring, lives in the tops of high trees and feeds chiefly on leaves. 



The colobus monkeys are large, black and white-colored animals with 

 long and silky hair, and white brushy tails, their bearded faces having a 

 serious and often sad expression. They are found in goodly numbers in the 

 Mount Kenia region and in the dense forests of the Mera and Kilimanjaro 

 mountain, the snow-clad roof of the African Continent. Our illustration 

 shows the highest peak of this majestic mountain, which rises 20,000 feet above 



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