SIMIAD.E. 4o5 



of examples, much stress cannot be laid upon it. In H. Lar, the index 

 and middle toes are said to be united by a broad web, but not carried 

 quite throughout the whole of the first phalanx : and such is the case in 

 the specimen in the museum of the Zoological Society, London. Out 

 of six specimens, however, examined with particular care by Mr, 

 Waterhouse (and which formed part of a collection sent to London 

 for sale), one only, and that a female, had the toes united: in another 

 female, and in four male specimens, this peculiarity was absent. Hence 

 we are led]_to conclude, that in H. Lar, at least, the union varies in 

 degree ; and its being rather more decided in the only specimen of H. 

 variegatus, in which it has been observed, than in a specimen of H. Lar, 

 is no proof that, therefore, the two are specifically distinct. 



With regard to colour, the H. Lar is said to be of a deep black ; the H. 

 variegatus of a dirty light brown, passing on the abdomen, loins, and crupper, 

 into dirty yellowish white (the facial circle, hands, and feet, being white 

 in both). The " Grand Gibbon" of Buffon (brought, as he states, from 

 Pondicherry), is, indeed, described as being black ; and such may be said 

 to be the colour of the young specimen in the Rafflesian collection of the 

 museum of the Zoological Society (No. 4, in Catalogue, 1838); but in no 

 other specimens which the Author has examined has this been the general 

 colour. Of the six specimens (already referred to), examined by Mr. 

 Waterhouse, viz., four males and two females, one was of a dirty, yel- 

 lowish white colour, the hands and feet being white : in other respects it 

 agreed with the rest, which were brown-black, with dirty-white feet and 

 hands ; but, in one male, the lower part of the back was of a very pale 

 brown, like white-brown paper. 



The specimens in the Museum at Paris are of a deep umber-brown, be- 

 coming paler on the crupper. Mr. Gould's specimen was deep brown, 

 shaded into black only on the top of the head. In the specimen of H. 

 variegatus, in the Rafflesian collection of the museum of the Zoological 

 Society (No. 9, in Catalogue, 1838), though the tints are all lighter, their 

 character is the same. The general hue is pale brown, becoming still paler 

 on the crupper, but deepening, on the top of the head, into blackish brown; 

 the arms and inferior extremities being almost as intense. The Petit Gibbon 

 of Buffon (from Malacca), is described as having been grey, mingled with 

 brown, and with a grey crupper. As, then, we find among acknowledged 

 specimens of H. Lar, a variation in colour, from black to umber-brown, 

 those of the latter colour having the top of the head darker, and the loins 

 and lower part of the back paler than the general hue, it is not assuming too 

 much, to consider specimens differing only in being of a still lighter tint, 

 and that rather in parts than generally, to be nothing more than varieties.* 



* Since writing the above, the Author has had an opportunity of examining a specimen of the H. 

 variegatus (H. Lar var.) : it was a young female. The general colour was brown, darkest on the top 



