S1MIAD.E. 491 



but upon this point there is some uncertainty. M. Riippell, the only 

 naturalist who has dissected one of these animals (see his account of 

 the Col. Guereza, in Neue Wirbelthiere Sdugethiere, i. 1835), does not 

 make any mention of them. Mr. Ogilby, however, in his description of 

 Colobus fuliginosus, C. Temminckii, (see Proceedings of Zoological 

 Society, London, 1835, p. 98), observing that the face is short, the 

 head round, and the whole form and habit those of the Semnopitheci, 

 says, " the teeth are of the usual form and number, and there are 

 large and very distinct cheek-pouches ;" and he adds : " I was the 

 more particular in making this last observation, because the organs in 

 question had not been previously recorded as existing in the Colobi ; 

 and because M. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, in his valuable lectures, of which 

 it is a matter of great regret that so small a portion has been given 

 to the public, even doubts their existence. Of this, however, there can 

 be no longer any reasonable doubt ; they are extremely apparent, and 

 rather capacious, in the specimen now under description." It may here 

 be remarked, that Illiger, who established the genus, and that Desmarest,* 

 who drew up its characters from Geoffrey, expressly affirm the presence 

 of cheek-pouches ; and M. Geoffroy, in his lectures, says, " leurs aba- 

 joues sont assez developpees." Setting aside, however, Illiger, Desma- 

 rest, and M. Geoffroy, it is to be observed that the Author of this work 

 has carefully examined the specimen, in which Mr. Ogilby considers the 

 cheek-pouches to be both apparent and capacious ; and though he hesitates 

 in differing from so judicious a naturalist, yet he cannot help confessing 

 that he felt by no means satisfied as to their real existence. It is true 

 that there is a vacuum between the skin of the cheeks and the jaw-bones, 

 a vacuum not bounded posteriorly, as cheek-pouches are, but communi- 

 cating with the hollow skin of the neck. Now, in effecting the preparation 

 of the specimen, and the remark applies to others also, the skin of the 

 head has, evidently, been separated from the bones, and, after the applica- 

 tion of the ingredients used in preserving it, returned to its former position ; 

 hence, in drying, the skin no longer adhering to the bones of the jaws, a 

 space between the skin and jaws would naturally be the result ; and in a 

 specimen so prepared, it would be difficult to say whether the vacuum, 

 thus presented, indicated capacious cheek-pouches, or was merely a con- 

 sequence of the flaying of the head, and the subsequent contraction of the 

 skin, in drying. The fact is, that in dried specimens, as they are usually 

 prepared, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain precisely, 

 whether, in the living animals, cheek-pouches were present or not, and in 

 this predicament stands the genus Colobus. 



* Desmarest also gives cheek-pouches as characteristic of the genus Semnopithecus, a palpable 

 error (see Mammalogie, Supplement, p. 532), proving how cautiously the assertions of the most accurate 

 naturalists are to be received. 



