30 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



monest Asiatic Macaques. These Guenons, of which there are at 

 least forty species, making the group the most numerous among the 

 monkeys, are very easily recognised, in spite of the great variation 

 in colour between different species. They are all long-tailed monkeys, 

 and of very much the same shape, well-proportioned and long-tailed, 

 with short faces ; their cheek-pouches are large, but the seat-pads small. 

 Their fur is thick and short, and, whatever its colour, is of a grizzled or 

 pepper-and-salt type over much of the body, the individual hairs being 

 marked with light and dark rings. 



In the Diana these rings are white and black, producing an iron-grey 

 effect, and this colour is found in a few others ; but the commonest tint 

 is olive-green — a very curious hue for a furred quadruped — produced by 

 rings of black and yellow on the hairs. Only two, the Patas and the 

 Nisnas {Cercopithecus patas and C. Pyrrkonotus) are chiefly red in 

 colour, and these have peculiarly long limbs, and appear to live more 

 on the ground than the others. 



As a rule, the Guenons are essentially tree-monkeys, and most of 

 them come from the great forest regions of West and Central Africa. 

 They are extremely active among the boughs, and feed on fruit and 

 leaves, with the addition of insects and birds' eggs, &c. ; in fact, they are, 

 like the Macaques, omnivorous. They live in troops, under the direction 

 of a leading male, who acts as sentinel or commander-in-chief, having 

 different notes or expressions which he uses in giving his orders. The 

 Guenons, however, do not appear to be very noisy monkeys. Of course, 

 there is much quarrelling among them ; but they will, like the tribe in 

 ^general, unite against a common enemy, and carefully attend to each 

 other's fur, cleaning it and freeing it from thorns, burrs, and parasites. 



Monkeys, by the way, are popularly supposed to be always flea- 

 hunting; but, as a matter of fact, parasites have little chance of 

 existence on a monkey, unless it is kept alone with no friends to look 

 after its coat ; the constant picking and scratching that goes on is 

 really more a sort of curry-combing, and is the means by which the 

 fur is kept neat and in good order. What monkeys find and eat on 

 each other are little lumps of secretion from the skin. The young of 

 these monkeys are carried at first clinging below the body, but after- 

 wards mount on to their mother's back. 



