48 



THE MONKEYS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



the nostrils. The very large curved canines 

 of the male plainly show that the old monkey 

 cannot be a very agreeable character. The 

 kahau lives socially on trees by river banks, 

 and utters a disagreeable loud howl, which 

 the native name is intended to imitate. 



Colobi. 



African monkeys, resembling the Semnopitheci, but with 

 more powerful jaws and much reduced thumb, and with- 

 out cheek-pouches. 



From this very' rich genus, which is dis- 

 tributed throughout tropical Africa, we select 

 for illustration the Guereza {Colobus guereza), 

 fig. 5, which Ruppell discovered in Abyssinia, 

 where it inhabits the mountain forests at a 

 height of from 6500 to lo.cxx) feet above the 

 sea. This slender long-tailed monkey is black, 

 with a narrow white band above the eyes, 

 white beard and whiskers, and a white tuft 

 at the end of its tail. As the animal grows 

 older long, fine, soft, white hairs grow out 

 in an elegant curve extending from the 

 shoulder-joint to the small of the back, and 

 these form a spreading mantle in the old 

 males. This monkey is social in its mode of 

 life, is extremely adroit and bold, and carries 

 on its pranks in the high tree -tops, where 

 only a rifle bullet can reach it. The Abys- 

 sinians formerly used its fine coat as a cover- 

 ing for their shields. 



The Colobi represent on African soil the 

 Semnopitheci of Asia, with which they agree 

 in the form of the body and in the possession 

 of a long tail and compound stomach. But 

 the jaws are more powerful. In an old 

 guereza male the tendons of the muscles form 

 a ridge on the skull almost like that of a 

 carnivore, and the curved cutting canines 

 are weapons not to be despised. The molar 

 teeth get worn away by use in such a manner 

 that only an external plate of enamel remains 

 standing, which gives the teeth when seen 

 from the side the appearance of a .saw. The 

 small size of the thumb is characteristic in all 

 Colobi, that member being sometimes repre- 



sented only by a stump or a wart, and some- 

 times altogether absent. The great toe is 

 normal in structure. 



The Guenons {Cercopitheais). 



African monkeys with simple stomach, cheek-pouches, long 

 tail, large thumb, and moderately long limbs. 



This is an arboreal genus, the more slender 

 species of which would scarcely have been 

 separated from the Semnopitheci, were it not 

 that the jaws are more powerful and the 

 stomach simple. They inhabit the whole of 

 tropical Africa, as well as our zoological 

 gardens; and in general are good-humoured, 

 easily tamed, and readily bring forth young 

 in captivity. Most of the general character- 

 istics of these monkeys are sketched from 

 tame captive specimens. 



Various sub-genera have been established 

 very unnecessarily, the distinctions being 

 founded on the number of tubercles on the 

 wisdom teeth in the lower jaw. Those with 

 three tubercles form the sub -genus Myio- 

 pithecus, to which belongs the Talapoin of 

 West Africa, which on account of its large 

 ears and broad nasal septum reminds us of the 

 American monkeys ; those with four tubercles 

 form the sub-genus Cercopithecus, the typical 

 and most numerous group, to which belongs 

 the Diana Monkey of our illustration, fig. 6, 

 as well as the Mona and the Green Guenon 

 [C. sabceus); those with five tubercles, the sub- 

 genus Cercocebus, constituting the Mangabeys 

 of the traders, among which the snout is 

 rather longer than in the others, somewhat 

 baboon-like, as it is also in the C. fuliginosus 

 of West Africa. 



The colour of the fur is very various. 

 The larger and somewhat sturdier species 

 are usually of a uniform colour, green; the 

 Talapoin and the common Green Guenon 

 which ascends high up among the mountains 

 and stands our climate best, grayish black; 

 the Mangabey or Moorish Monkey, yellow or 

 reddish-brown ; the Hussar or Nisnas Monkey 



