THE ABYSSINIAN GREEN MONKEY 



( Cercopithecus cethiofts) 



AS a familiar example of a very large assemblage of exclusively African long- 

 tailed monkeys collectively known as guenons (from a French word 

 signifying to make grimaces), no better species could have been selected for 

 illustration than the Abyssinian green monkey. This monkey, which like its cousin 

 the common green monkey {Cercopithecus callitrickus, or sabceus) may be seen in 

 almost all menageries and on many street-organs, is an East African species ; 

 whereas the true green monkey is West African, ranging from Senegambia through 

 Sierra Leone to northern Liberia, but has been introduced into some of the Cape 

 Verd and West Indian Islands, where it still occurs plentifully, at least in Barbados. 



From the guereza monkeys {Colobus) of Africa, a guenon may be dis- 

 tinguished at a glance by its well-developed thumbs ; while these monkeys also 

 differ from guerezas, as well as from their Asiatic relatives the langurs, by having 

 well-developed pouches in their cheeks for storing food. There is, however, another 

 African group of monkeys, the mangabeys {Cercocebus), some of which are more 

 difficult to distinguish from guenons, although the majority are recognisable at a 

 glance by their flesh-coloured eyelids, whence the name of white eyelid monkeys. 

 When this character fails, resource must be had to the cheek-teeth, of which the 

 last pair in the lower jaw is less complex in a guenon than in a mangabey ; but 

 to examine the back-teeth of a live monkey is not an experiment every one would 

 desire to try ! 



To any one but a specialist, the very large number of representatives of the 

 guenons are exceedingly difficult to class and identify. The matter has, however, 

 been somewhat simplified by arranging the species in thirteen groups, each character- 

 ised by the possession of some particular distinctive feature or features. The well- 

 known diana monkey (C. diand) represents, for instance, a group in which there are 

 long, upwardly directed, snow-white whiskers associated with blackish or dark red 

 under-parts, a white brow-band, distinctly white areas on the chest and the inside 

 of the arms, a chin-tuft, and a white stripe on the outer side of the thigh. The 

 members of the spot-nosed group, again, as typified by C. petaurista, are recognisable 

 at a glance by having a large, heart-shaped white spot on the tip of the nose. The 

 green monkeys, on the other hand, belong to a group (typified by the Abyssinian 

 species) somewhat less easy to recognise, but characterised by the absence of black 

 on the outer surface of the arms, which may be coloured like the body, but are 

 usually, as in the plate, somewhat paler and grey. The face is nearly always black, 

 but may be mottled or freckled with pigment; and, except in one species, the 



