August 1, 1899.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



175 



the line of the face, so that the nostrils are fully visible 

 from the front ; the whole aspect of the face being curiously 

 piquant. The species here figured — the Orange Snub-nosed 

 Monkey — was first made known to European science by the 

 French missionary, Abbe David, who obtained specimens 

 while travelling in the province of Moupin, in Eastern Tibet. 

 Some of his specimens are preserved in the Zoological 

 Museum at Paris ; and the coloured plate of a female has 

 long been the only figure available to naturalists. Thanks, 

 however, to an energetic English naturalist resident in 

 China, the Natural History Museum has recently acquired a 

 pair of these hitherto little-known monkeys ; our figure being 

 taken from the male, which has been mounted for exhibi- 

 tion, and will form one of the most attractive specimens 

 in the large monkey case. Since our photograph does not 

 attempt chromatic efi'ect, it is necessary to mention that 

 the general colour of the upper parts is rich olive-brown, 

 flecked with yellow and suffused with rufous, while the 

 sides of the face, the lower part of the forehead, and the 

 under parts are brilliant yellowish-orange, tending to full 

 orange on the face, the naked portions of which are pale 

 blue. Across the loins there is a light patch comparable 

 to that of the Proboscis Monkey ; the taU being propor- 

 tionately rather shorter than in the latter, with a distinct 

 tendency towards a club-shape. Altogether, the appear- 

 ance of the animal is highly peculiar, both from the point 

 of view of form and of coloration. The head, for 

 example, in addition to its " tip-tilted " nose, is noticeable 

 for its extreme massiveness, which gives an almost leonine 

 appearance. And this general massiveness is equally 

 observable in the limbs, which are relatively shorter than 

 in the true Langurs ; the feet being especially heavy and 

 broad, with their toes almost concealed by long hair. 



And here the attention of the reader may be directed to 

 the circumstance that animals inhabiting cold countries 

 (and Sze-chuan, where the British Museum specimens 

 were obtained, can be very cold) are almost always much 

 more heavily and substantially built than their relatives 

 from warmer climes. An excellent instance of this pheno- 

 menon is afibrded by the case of tigers in the same 

 collection ; the Bengal tiger being a long lanky beast, 

 while its cousin from Mongolia is a heavily built creature, 

 with extraordinarily massive limbs. Of course the longer 

 hair of the Central Asiatic animal tends to exaggerate its 

 general massiveness, which, however, would be perfectly 

 apparent even without this extraneous aid. Possibly a 

 stout and heavy build, especially as regards the limbs, 

 may aid in protecting the circulatory system from the 

 efiects of extreme cold. 



As regards the habits of the Orange Snub-nosed Monkey, 

 our Information is of the most meagre description. These 

 animals are stated, however, to congregate in troops of 

 considerable size, and to ascend the tallest trees (the part 

 of Tibet they inhabit being more or less wooded) in search 

 of fruits, which they much prefer to leaves. When pressed 

 by hunger, leaves and the tender shoots of bamboo are 

 said to form their staple nutriment. Bearing in mind this 

 alleged partiality for fruits, it would be most interesting to 

 determine whether the stomach of these monkeys is as 

 complex as that of the true Langurs. 



In view of the recent acquisition by the British Museum 

 of the first specimens of the Orange species of Snub-nosed 

 Monkeys ever seen in the country, it is not a little curious 

 that it was last year that the professors of the Paris 

 Museum were enabled to publish, with excellent coloured 

 plates, the description of a new species of the same group, 

 also coming from Tibet and the adjacent districts of North- 

 western China. 



This new species, which may be popularly known as the 



Slaty Snub-nosed Monkey, is fully as large as its more 

 brilliantly-coloured relative, which it also resembles in the 

 form of its nose. The tail is, however, much more bushy, 

 and long-haired throughout. And while the colour of the 

 upper parts and outer and front surfaces of the limbs is 

 dark slaty-brown, the cheeks, under parts, and thighs are 

 mostly pure white ; the naked portions of the face being 

 flesh-coloured. 



The specimens of the slate -coloured species in the Paris 

 ]\Iuseum were obtained in the north-west extremity of 

 Yun-nan. on the left bank of the Eiver Mekong, in the 

 neighbourhood of Yerkalo, and it seems evident that the 

 species inhabits the crest of the long range separating 

 the valley of the Mekong from that of the Yang-tsi-kiang. 

 During the summer it is probable they frequent that side 

 of the range which overlooks China, while their winter 

 quarters would appear to be the side directed towards 

 Tibet. The native name of Tchm-tchra, or snow-monkey, 

 sufficiently indicates the severity of the climate of the 

 region they inhabit. Probably the Blue River forms the 

 line of division between the distributional areas of the 

 slaty and the orange species, the latter being found in 

 southern Kansu, northern Sze-chuan, and Moupin. 



Despite their long isolation from the sphere of European 

 science, one, if not both, of these peculiar monkeys seems 

 to have been known to the Chinese from time immemorial, 

 for in a work entitled Shan-Hoi- Kiwj, or " Mountain and 

 Sea Record," which has been supposed to date from more 

 than two thousand years b.c, a so-called man of the Heu 

 Yeung kingdom appears, from its tip-tilted nose, to be one 

 or other of the species under consideration. 



In the foregoing remarks we have treated the three 

 species of monkeys with eccentric nasal development 

 merely as zoological curiosities. But it will be evident to 

 every thinking mind that there must be a reason for such 

 strange departures from the normal, and until we discover 

 su3h reason we cannot be said to know anything worth 

 knowing about these amimals. Unfortunately, those who 

 have had the opportunity of seeing these monkeys in their 

 native haunts have not assisted us in this matter; and 

 as neither the Proboscis Monkey nor the Snub-nosed 

 Monkeys have, we believe, hitherto been exhibited in con- 

 finement, there is an absolute lack of information in regard 

 to this all-important point. And that the problem cannot 

 be solved by guessing on the part of the stay-at-home 

 naturaUst may be regarded as practically certain. At the 

 present day, owing partly to the anxiety to describe new 

 species, and partly to the desire to obtain specimens of 

 every animal for our museums, there appears a great ten- 

 dency for intelligent explorers and travellers to degenerate 

 from field naturalists into mere collectors. And the pity 

 of this is too obvious to need more than mention. It is 

 indeed often said that it is most important to obtain speci- 

 mens of species before they become extinct ; but the dis- 

 covery of the raison d\Hri- of the tip-tilted nose of the 

 Tibetan monkeys, or of the proboscis-like organ of their 

 Bornean cousin, would be a thousand times more valuabk 

 than the acquisition of untold specimens of either. And 

 even the recently-acquired knowledge of the existence of 

 the second species of Snub-nosed Monkey pales into un- 

 importance when contrasted with the unsolved problem. 

 By all means, then, let all those who have the opportunity 

 put mere collecting into a very subsidiary place, arid devote 

 all their energies to the solution of problems of this nature 

 (and their name is legion) before it becomes for ever too 

 late. 



After what has been said as to the necessity of actual 

 observation to determine the reason for the peculiar nasal 

 development of these monkeys, it would obviously be out 



