LANGURS. 71 



in the woods, eating only leaves and buds of trees ; but when they are catched they 

 will eat anything. This sort they call in their language wanderows (wanderus)." 

 This account has been thought to apply to the lion-tailed monkey (a macaque), 

 which was formerly incorrectly called the Wanderu. That monkey is, however, 

 black ; and there is not the slightest doubt but that Knox described the langurs, 

 which are the wanderus of the Singalese. 



THE HANUMAN, OR TRUE LANGUR (Semnopithecus entellus). 



Perhaps the best known of all the langurs, and the one which gives the 

 scientific name to the genus, is the hanuman monkey, or true langur, of which 

 we give a figure. This fine monkey is found throughout the northern part of 

 Peninsular India, from South- Western Bengal and Orissa to Gujerat and Bombay, 

 and is also found in Kattywar, and probably Katch, although unknown in Sind and 

 the Punjab. Southwards it ranges into the Bombay Deccan; while its extreme 

 northern limit extends to the outer ranges of the Himalaya, although there is still 

 some doubt as to where the range of this species ends and that of the next begins. 



The hanuman is one of four species of Indian langurs, characterised by having 

 the hair covering the crown of the head radiating in all directions from a central 

 point situated on the forehead. It is distinguished from its allies by the absence of 

 any crest of hair on the head, of which the colour is scarcely, if at all, paler than 

 that of the back ; and by the full black colour of the upper surfaces of the hands 

 and feet. The hair of the cheeks does not cover the relatively large ears. The 

 general colour is greyish-brown, paler in some individuals than in others ; but the 

 face, ears, feet, and hands, are coal-black. In size a large male hanuman will 

 measure some 30 inches in head and body ; but average specimens will be about 

 25 inches, while their tail will measure as much as 38. As Mr. Sterndale has 

 well observed, "the tout ensemble of the langur is so peculiar that no one who 

 has once been told of a long, loose-limbed, slender monkey, with a prodigious 

 tail, black face, and overhanging brows of long, stiff, black hair, projecting like 

 a penthouse, would fail to recognise the animal." 



Langurs are exceedingly common throughout a large part of India, 

 and in most districts are held sacred by the Hindus, by whom they are 

 allowed to plunder the grain-shops at will. Mr. Sterndale considers, however, that the 

 best times of the hanuman are over, and that it is not now allowed the free run of the 

 bazaars so readily as it once was, while in some districts the aid of Europeans has even 

 been invoked to rid the natives from the devastations of these monkeys, which take 

 their name from the god Hanuman, to whom they are sacred. 



As Mr. W. T. Blanford observes, the protection accorded to the hanuman by 

 the Hindus of Northern India has caused these animals to be so tame, and so utterly 

 disregardless of the presence of man, that there are but few mammals whose habits 

 can be so well observed. The same writer states that " the hanuman is usually 

 found in smaller or larger communities, composed of individuals of both sexes and 

 of all ages, the youngest clinging to their mothers, and being carried by them, 

 especially when alarmed. An old male is occasionally found solitary, as with so 

 many other mammals. The story that males and females live in separate troops, 



