28 CEBCOPITHECIDiE. 



Disirilmtion. The uortheru portion of the ludiiin Peninsula, 

 including Soutli-western Bengal, Orissa, the Central Provinces, 

 Bombay, Guzerat, Southern Eajputana and part of the N.W. 

 Provinces, extending to Kattywar and probably to Cutch (J. A. S. B. 

 xli, pt. 2, p. 220), but not to Sind or the Punjab. Hutton states 

 that this species is not indigenous east of the Hugli or north of 

 the Gauges, and of a line drawn ^ve,st\^'ard from Allahabad to near 

 Bundi on the Chambal, and that colonies found near certain 

 Hindu shrines, as Muttra in the North-west Provinces and Kish- 

 nagurh in Bengal, have been introduced. The latter is probable, 

 but it is certain that Langurs occur in the Oudh Tei'ai, and gene- 

 rally along the base of the Himalaya (Jerdon mentions their 

 occurrence near Pankabari, in Sikhim), and they are more likely to 

 be this species than 8. schistaceus. It is remarlcable that the range 

 of so well-known an animal should be so imperfectly ascertained. 

 The southern limit of >S. eiitcUus also needs verification. This is 

 certainly the species inhabiting the Bombay Deccan ; but Blyth 

 mentions (J. A. S. B. xiii, p. 471) an immatiu-e black-handed 

 specimen from Coimbatore, well within the range of the pale- 

 handed P. priamus, and Lydekker has referred to S. entellus the 

 remains from the Kurnool caves. The range of this Langur on the 

 Eastern coast extends, I believe, south of the Godavery. 



Habits. Pew, if any, wild animals afford better opportunities for 

 observation than the Hanuman Monkey of Northern and Central 

 India. Generally protected, and looked upon as sacred by many 

 of the Hindu inhabitants, it has no fear of man and may be found 

 in groves near villages, or even in the village trees, as commonly 

 as in the depths of the forest. In many parts of India it is a 

 common occurrence to see these monkeys on the roofs of houses. 

 They frequently pilfer food from the grain-dealers' shops, whUst 

 the damage they iniliet on gardens and fields renders them so great 

 a nuisance that the inhabitants of the country, although they will 

 not as a rule kill the monkeys themselves, sometimes beg Euro- 

 peans to shoot the intruders. 



S. entellus feeds on fruit and grain, seed, seed-pods (for instance 

 gram), leaves and young shoots, the last two forming a large 

 portion of its food. Certain vegetable poisons are said to be taken 

 by this monkey with impunity, doses of 5 and even 10 grains of 

 strychnine having been given to one without effect, although the 

 same drug killed Macacus rhesus quickly. 



The Hanuman is usually found in smaller or larger communities, 

 composed of individuals of both sexes and of all ages, the youngest 

 clinging to their mothers and being carried by them, especially 

 when alarmed. An old male is occasionally found solitary, as 

 with so many other mammals. The story that males and females 

 live in separate troups, though apparently believed by Blyth and 

 quoted by Jerdon, I agree with Hutton in regarding as fictitious, 

 though, as the latter observer justly remarks, females with very 

 young offspring may keep together and temporarily apart from the 

 remainder of the troup to which they belong. 



