490 QUADRUMANA. 



territory. But with respect to other Semnopitheci, the interest which 

 attaches to them, in the eyes of the man of science, cannot be fully parti- 

 cipated in by the general reader, who is anxious to learn, principally, the 

 economy of the species presented to his notice ; a desire experienced also by 

 the naturalist ; but which, unfortunately, will not always be gratified. Let 

 it, however, be recollected that our knowledge of the animals of this genus 

 is but of recent date ; that, of all now described, two or three only have 

 been imported alive into Europe ; and that, of the rest, excepting as far as 

 is to be gained by an examination of preserved specimens, no information, 

 or but little, has been acquired. At the same time, so closely are these 

 Monkeys related to each other in form and structure, that it is not pre- 

 suming too much to say that their manners and habits agree in every 

 essential. Some may prefer the forests of elevated tracts, and others 

 those which cover sultry lowlands ; but all are essentially arboreal, all 

 frugivorous, and all, when adult, indocile and morose. The Entellus, in 

 fact, may be taken as a type of the rest. 



GENUS. COLOBUS. 

 Colobus ILLIG. Prodrom. Syst. Mamm. 1811. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. Form and DENTITION as in Semnopithecus ; STO- 

 MACH and CAECUM as in Semnopithecus; (?) LARYNGAL SACCULI ; (?) 

 CHEEK-POUCHES ; (?) THUMB of the fore-hands reduced to a nail-less 

 tubercle, but with the bones in a rudimentary condition beneath the 

 skin. 



COUNTRY. Africa, exclusively. 



The genus Colobus may be described, in brief, as a repetition of Sem- 

 nopithecus, with the thumb of the hand (see fig. 287) still more reduced, 

 9g7 and useless ; and it is upon this charac- 



ter, viz., the absence of a thumb, that it 

 was founded by Illiger, in his Prodro- 

 mus. As to the value of this negative 

 character, remembering the almost ru- 

 dimentary condition of the thumb in 



Haud of Colobus. ,-1 o -i j ,-1 . n . 



the bemnopitheci, and the very trifling 



share of influence it exerts in their economy, we should not be disposed 

 to lay much stress upon it, were not some extraneous importance given 

 to it, by geographic distribution ; a consideration which, in most in- 

 stances, will avail little ; but yet, which often corroborates the propriety 

 of generic separations founded on characters of minor value. It is, 

 indeed, true, that cheek-pouches, which cannot be said to exist in the 

 Semnopitheci, are assigned, as a distinguishing character, to the Colobi ; 



