GUENONS. 



99 



the same colour above the eyes communicates a very peculiar and characteristic physi- 

 ognomy to the patas, which led Button to describe it as the monkey a bandeau noir. 

 One of the earliest accounts that we possess of the patas is given by an old 

 French traveller, Brue, but it is not to be relied on in all particulars. A living 

 example was lirst exhibited in the London Zoological Society's menagerie about 

 the year 1834, since which date it has been abundantly represented. This original 



THE PATAS MONKEY (fa Dtat. size). 



example, which was very young, was described as being lively and active, but 

 somewhat irascible if disturbed or handled. 



THE NISNAS MONKEY (Cercopithecus pyrrhonotus). 



On the opposite side of Africa, in Nubia and Somaliland, the place of the 

 patas is taken by a closely allied monkey, known as the nisnas. So similar, indeed, 

 are these two monkeys that Dr. Gray considered them merely as varieties of the 

 same species ; and it is quite probable that if we knew all the monkeys from the 

 intermediate districts of North Central Africa we should find that the one passed 

 into the other. However, as they are considered by the learned secretary of the 

 Zoological Society to be distinct, we must, at least for the present, allow them to 

 stand apart. According to Dr. Gray, the nisnas is distinguished from the patas 

 merely by the red colour of the body being continued on to the shoulders and the 

 outer sides of the arms, instead of those parts assuming a blackish tinge. 



The nisnas is the species so frequently represented on the ancient Egyptian 



