168 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
applies) are distinguished by their long silky black and 
white coats, which are much sought after by the natives 
of Africa as articles of costume and for purposes of deco- 
ration. In the typical Abyssinian guereza, the greater part 
of the fur of the body and limbs is of a deep shining 
black, but from the shoulders there depends a mantle of 
long white silky hairs extending down each side and 
meeting on the lower part of the back, so as to hang down 
over the sides of the body as well as over the hips and 
thighs. The terminal third of the tail is also clothed with 
long white hairs. Strikingly handsome as is this species, 
it is excelled in this respect by the East African guereza, 
in which the base of the tail is alone black, the whole of 
the remainder of that appendage being developed into a 
magnificent white brush, which may be compared to an 
Indian chowrz, or fly-whisk. 
Black and white is a type of coloration so conspicuous, 
and, at the same time, so rare among the larger mammals, 
that whenever it occurs we may be quite sure it is developed 
for some special purpose, although, unless we have an 
opportunity of seeing the animals in their native haunts, 
it is almost impossible to divine what that purpose may 
be. It is met with elsewhere in the zebras, and also in 
the great panda (Aeluropus) of Tibet. Although the former 
animals are conspicuous enough in a stall at the ‘ Zoo,” 
or when stuffed in a museum, travellers tell us that when 
seen in the haze of an African desert their black and 
white stripes fade at a very short distance to an almost 
invisible grey. This may even be observed in a hot 
summer, when the grass is burnt brown, in the Duke of 
Bedford’s seat at Woburn Abbey, where several of these 
beautiful animals roam at will in the park during the 
summer months. 
