8 4 APES AND MONKEYS. 



FOSSIL LANGUKS. 



As we might naturally suppose would be the case, fossil remains of langurs. 

 have been found in their native land of India. Some of these have been obtained 

 from caverns in the Madras Presidency, and do not date back much, if at all, beyond 

 the human period. Other remains occur, however, in the much older Siwalik 

 sandstones forming the ranges on the 'flanks of the Himalaya, and belonging to the 

 upper part of that division of the Tertiary period known to geologists as the 

 Pliocene. This does not, however, by any means limit the range of extinct langurs, 

 since their remains have been found in the Pliocene deposits of the Val d'Arno in 

 Tuscany, and also in strata of equivalent age in the south of France. We have, 

 therefore, evidence that these monkeys, which are now confined to the Oriental 

 region, were formerly widely spread over the eastern hemisphere. 



THE PROBOSCIS MONKEY. 

 Genus Nasalis. 



If the physiognomy of the Tibetan langur strikes us as ludicrous, it is hard to 

 say what epithet we ought to apply to the far more grotesque-looking creature 

 represented in the accompanying figure. The nose of the proboscis monkey is 

 indeed so enormous in proportion to the face that it presents the appearance of an 

 absolute deformity, and it is very hard to imagine of what possible advantage it 

 can be to its owner. 



The proboscis monkey (N. larvatus) is an inhabitant of Borneo, and its 

 marked difference from other monkeys is one of the many proofs indicating the 

 great antiquity of that island, and the long period during which it has been isolated 

 from other lands. In general structure the proboscis monkey conforms so closely 

 to the langurs that the peculiarity of its nasal organ would not alone justify its 

 separation from that group as the representative of a distinct genus, although it 

 was on this ground alone that the separation was originally made. Subsequent 

 researches have, however, shown that the skull can be distinguished at a glance 

 from that of any of the langurs, and also from those of the African genus Colobus, 

 to be mentioned immediately, by the form of the aperture of the nasal cavity. 

 Thus, whereas in the latter this aperture extends upwards between the sockets 

 of the eyes, in the proboscis monkey the nose bones which roof over this aperture 

 descend considerably below the lower margin of the eye-sockets. In this respect 

 the species under consideration resembles the macaques and their allies. 



The proboscis monkey was first made known to European science in 1781 

 by Baron Wurmb, sometime Dutch governor of Batavia. Wurmb described it 

 under the name Kakau, a term apparently made up from a resemblance to its cry, 

 but unknown to the native inhabitants of Borneo, by whom it is said to be called 

 Bantajau. Specimens were subsequently sent to Europe by Sir Stamford Baffles, 

 and it was considered by Messrs Vigors and Horsfield that these indicated two 



