86 APES AND MONKEYS. 



The enormous nose, from which the proboscis monkey derives both its popular 

 and scientific appellations, projects several inches in front of the mouth, with the 

 nostrils placed on its under surface, although separated by a much narrower septum 

 than in man. This excessive development of the nose is, however, only reached 

 in the adult male ; it being much less throughout life in the female, while in the 

 young of both sexes it is comparatively small, and upturned as in the Tibetan 

 langur. 



No living examples of the proboscis monkey have, we believe, been exhibited 

 in this country ; and accounts of its habits in the wild condition are few. The 

 following extracts are taken from a translation of the original account given by 

 Baron Wurmb. After stating that these monkeys are found in large troops, the 

 author says that " they assemble together morning and evening, at the rising and 

 setting of the sun, and always on the banks of some stream or river; there 

 they may be seen seated on the branches of some great tree, or leaping with 

 astonishing force and rapidity from one tree or branch to another, at the distance 

 of fifteen or twenty feet. It is a curious and interesting sight ; but I have never 

 remarked, as the accounts of the natives would have you believe, that they hold 

 their long nose 'in the act of jumping; on the contrary, I have uniformly observed 

 that on such occasions they extend the legs and arms to as great a distance as 

 possible, apparently for the purpose of presenting as large a surface as they can to 

 the atmosphere. The nature of their food is unknown, which renders it impossible 

 to keep them alive in a state of confinement." 



THE THUMBLESS MONKEYS. 

 Genus Colobus. 



The langurs, which as we have seen are widely distributed over South-Eastern 

 Asia, and more especially that portion forming the Oriental Region of zoologists, are 

 replaced in Africa by a group of monkeys closely allied to them in all respects, but 

 distinguished either by the total absence, or rudimentary condition, of the thumb. 

 When present at all this digit merely takes the form of a small tubercle, which may 

 or may not be provided with a minute nail. Such a point of difference from the 

 langurs is rightly regarded as worthy of generic distinction, and these African 

 monkeys have accordingly been described under the name of Colobus, in allusion to 

 the feature in question. There is no popular name by which these monkeys are 

 generally known, and we have accordingly entitled them the Thumbless Monkeys. 

 Since, however, this term would be somewhat cumbersome when prefixed to another 

 denoting the various species, it has been usual to anglicise the scientific name Colobus. 



There are rather less than a dozen species of this group known to science. 

 Our acquaintance with their habits is, however, extremely imperfect, and few of 

 them have been brought alive to Europe, since, like their cousins the langurs, they 

 are delicate, and do not thrive well in confinement. The sacculated stomach 

 indicates that their food, like that of the langurs, is in all probability largely 

 composed of leaves and twigs. If, however, their habits at all resemble those of 



