THE GUEREZA 



{Colobus guereza) ' 



The Lungoors are an exclusively Asiatic group of monkeys, but they 

 have allies in Africa in the shape of the Colobus Monkeys, of which the 

 Abyssinian species, or typical Guereza, may be considered a characteristic 

 sample. 



It is a slender, long-limbed, long-tailed monkey, though not so long 

 and slim as a Lungoor; and while it agrees with that group in only 

 having small seat-pads, it differs in possessing cheek-pouches, though 

 these are but small. A marked point of difference is the absence of a 

 thumb in the hand, though the great toe of the foot is sufficiently well 

 developed. 



These monkeys are, like the Lungoors, essentially tree-animals and 

 leaf-feeders ; they seldom come to the ground, and have the large, parti- 

 tioned stomach characteristic of a leaf-eating monkey. They also eat 

 insects, and, of course, they partake of fruit as well, but they appear not 

 to rob gardens ; at any rate Sir H. H. Johnston speaks of the Guereza 

 as avoiding human cultivations. They go in small companies, and do 

 not appear to be noisy animals. 



Both sexes of the animal have the beautiful black-and-white coat, 

 with snowy side-flounces and brush-tip to the tail ; the size about equals 

 that of a terrier. In Abyssinia and East Africa this monkey has only 

 the tip of the tail white ; but on the slopes of Kilimanjaro it is replaced 

 by a very beautiful long-haired race {Colobus guereza caudatus), in which 

 the side-fringes hang down as far as the middle of the legs, and the tail 

 is clothed from the tip to nearly the root with long drooping hairs, form- 

 ing a beautiful brush like that of a collie. This handsome creature, 

 perhaps the most beautiful of all monkeys, is also found on Mount Kenia, 

 where it ranges to a great height. ^ One would expect such a strikingly 



