LANGURS. 



83 



years 1819 and 1820, has given us an account of a number of doucs wliicli ho tsaw 

 during an expedition into the interior of the country, in the course of wliich it is 

 stated that a hundred individuals were slauglitered on a single occasion in the 

 endeavour to capture some living specimens. 



The Tibetan Laxgur, — Semnopithecus roxellance. 



Perliaps the last place in which we should expect to lind a living monkey 

 would be the highlands of Eastern Tibet. Nevei-theless, that one — and a 

 very peculiar one — does exist in those elevated regions has been proved by the 

 researches of the French missionary. Abbe David, who has done so much to increase 

 our knowledge of the fauna of that inaccessible jjart of the world. The monkey 

 in question, which niay be known as the Tibetan langur, although a true 

 SemnopitheciLS, may be recognised at a glance among all its congeners by its 

 " tip-tilted " nose. Although shoi-t and small, the nose is so much turned up that its 

 tip reaches to the level of the lower border of the ej'es. Some writers, relying on 

 this ijeeuliar foruuxtion of the nose, have separated the species from the other 

 langurs under the name of Rliinopitheciis, but this multijDlication of generic terms 

 is confusintr and unnecessarv. 



Although this remarkable monkey was first made known in Europ(! from 

 specimens obtained in Eastern Tibet, subsequent researches have shown that it also 

 ranges into Nortll-^V('st China, where it is found on the mountains of the province 

 of Kansu. It appears, indeed, from the researches of the late Professor Moseley, 

 that it has been known to the Chinese for an inunensely long period. There 

 is a Chinese work known as the Shun Hoi Kiiuj, or mountain and ocean 

 record, of very great anti(juity, — so old, indeed, that one commentator even assigns 

 to it as early a date as the year 2:^0.5 B.C., — in which there is a woodcut representing 

 a man of the Heu Yeung Kingdom, wherever that may be. Professor Moseley 

 reproduces this figure in his Notes of a Naturalist on the Challenger, and says that 

 it evidently represents a monkey closely allied to, and perhaps identical with, the 

 species under consideration ; the prominent nose turned uj) at the tip being clearly 

 sho^vn in the engraving. Professor Moseley adds that " the wide but unscientific 

 distinction commonly drawn between men and the higher monkeys is an error 

 of high civilisation, and comparatively recent. Less civilised races make no such 

 distinction. To the Dyak the great ape of Borneo is simply the Man of the Woods 

 — orang-utan." The Tibetan langur differs from the Indian langurs by its stouter 

 build, and relatively .shorter limbs. The upper surface of the body, the crown of 

 the head, the outer sides of the limbs, and the whole of the tail, are an olive-brown 

 colour, flecke<l with yellow; while the sides of the face, the lower part of the fore- 

 head, and all the under parts and the inner sides of the limbs, are of a brilliant 

 yellow, tending to orange, the naked parts of the face being bluish-grey. 



These langurs inhabit the forests of the mountain region between Moupin and 

 Lake Khokonor, where snow is said to lie for a large portion of the year. They 

 are stated to live in numerous troops, always ascending the loftiest trees, and 

 feeding on fruits, but when pressed by hunger eating also the leaves and shoots 

 of the bamboo. 



