503 



BENEDEN'S COLOBUS. 



COLOBUS VERUS. (Colobus verus, BENEDEN, " Notice sur une nouvelle espece de singe d'Afrique," 

 in BULL, de 1'Academie Royale de Bruxelles, torn. v. No. 6, c. figura. 1838.) 



Colobus verus LESSON, Species des Mamm. p. 70, 1840. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. General colour, greenish, or olive brown; the hairs round the 



callosities, rust coloured ; throat, grey. 

 LOCALITY. Africa, district unknown. 



DESCRIPTION. General contour, stouter than in the ordinary Colobi ; 

 the limbs are tolerably robust, and the tail is very long. The head, the 

 neck, the back, and the base of the tail are covered with hair of an olive- 

 brown ; this colour approaches that of the Sphinx Baboon, and of some 

 of the Green Monkeys. The hairs on all the above parts are finely 

 annulated with black. On the back of the neck, and particularly below, 

 and to the outside of the callosities, the hairs assume a rusty brown tinge. 

 The tail is long and grey throughout the whole of its length ; the apex 

 being a little deeper coloured. On the shoulders the colour of the back 

 changes insensibly to pale greyish green, which is spread over the whole 

 of the anterior extremities. On the hinder extremities, the colour of the 

 back descends to the knees ; but the legs and feet are of the same tint as 

 the anterior extremities ; the colour of the flanks is paler ; and the abdo- 

 men is covered with dull grey hairs, as are the sides of the neck. The 

 thumb of the anterior hands is so rudimentary, as not even to appear ex- 

 ternally, in the form of a tubercle : the original of this description is 

 deposited in the Museum of Natural History of Paris. (Vide Bull, de 

 V Academic Royale de Bruxelles, torn, v.) 



GENERAL HISTORY. Neither the precise locality, nor the habits of 

 this animal, have been ascertained. 



Here concludes the history of the genus Colobus, of which the two 

 original species described by Pennant have never, as it is presumed, been 

 since met with by naturalists ; the others are all recent additions to the 

 list of the Simiadse ; and, unfortunately (one species excepted), all that 

 concerns their habits has yet to be discovered. It is to be hoped that 

 this deficiency will, at no distant date, be supplied ; and that, as our 

 acquaintance with Western Africa enlarges, not only other species will be 

 found, but that the economy of those already described, will be investi- 

 gated by enlightened explorers of the rivers and forests of the regions 

 they inhabit. 



SUB-FAMILY III. A section of the Simiadse now presents itself, con- 

 sisting of several genera, agreeing with each other in the structure of all 

 the more important points of their organization, insomuch that, in some 

 instances, the lines of division between them are scarcely discernible, and 



