THE WHITE-HANDED GIBBON 



(Hylobates lar) 



THE name gibbon, which is of unknown origin, and appears to have been first 

 used by the French naturalist Buffon, is applied to the members of the 

 smallest representatives of the man-like apes, all of which differ from their 

 larger cousins, the chimpanzi, gorilla, and orang-utan, by retaining small bare 

 patches on the buttocks. In this respect they show evidence of kinship to ordinary 

 monkeys and baboons, in which, however, these naked callosities, as they are called 

 by naturalists, attain much greater development. 



Gibbons agree with the larger man-like apes in the complete absence of the tail, 

 but are distinguished by the great length of the limbs, more especially the front pair, 

 so that when these curious pigmies are standing upright on their feet, their hands 

 touch the ground. It is very interesting to note in this connection that gibbons 

 are the only man-like apes which habitually assume the erect posture in walking, 

 when the arms are usually elevated and in some cases extended horizontally, thus 

 giving a most remarkable appearance to their owners. 



All the members of the group are confined to tropical south-eastern Asia, 

 where they range from the eastern portion of the Himalaya through Burma and the 

 Malay countries to the island of Hainan, off the southern coast of China. The 

 largest species, the siaman {Hylobates syndactylus) of Borneo, does not much 

 exceed one yard in height. In colour they are very generally black, often, as in the 

 species represented in the Plate, with a narrow white band or fillet surrounding the 

 greater part of the face, or making merely a line above the eyebrows. In the white- 

 handed species, forming the subject of the illustration, the white fillet attains its 

 fullest development, and the hands and feet are likewise white. This species 

 inhabits the mountain-forests of Tenasserim at elevations between three thousand 

 and five thousand feet, whence it extends through the Malay Peninsula. Its near 

 relative the hulok {H. huloU), whose range extends from Assam to Arakan and the 

 neighbouring districts, lacks the white hands and feet, while the fillet on the face 

 merely forms a band over the eyebrow. In the Hainan gibbon {H. hainamts) .even 

 the eyebrow-band is wanting. 



A specimen of this last-named species, which is very near akin to the hulok, 

 afforded a surprise to naturalists in that it changed the colour of its coat during its 

 sojourn in the London Zoological Gardens. When obtained in 1897, at an age of 

 about six months, its colour was dark smoky grey, but this soon changed to black, 

 which persisted till after the animal's arrival in London in January 1904. In 

 February of that year the fur began to assume a greyish tinge ; and by autumn the 



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