Chap. I.] 



MONKEYS. 



9 



they may have descended to recover seeds or fruit 

 which have fallen at the foot of their favourite trees. 

 When disturbed, their leaps are prodigious : but, ge- 

 nerally speaking, their progress is made not so much 

 by leaping as by swinging from branch to branch, 

 using their powerful arms alternately ; and when 

 baffled by distance, flinging themselves obliquely so as 

 to catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the mo- 

 mentum acquired by their descent being sufficient to 

 cause a rebound of the branch, that carries them up- 

 wards again, till they can grasp a higher and more 

 distant one, and thus continue their headlong flight. In 

 these perilous achievements, wonder is excited less by 

 the surpassing agility of these little creatures, frequently 

 encumbered as they are by their young, which cling to 

 them in their career, than by the quickness of their eye 

 and the unerring accuracy with which they seem almost 

 to calculate the angle at which a descent will enable 

 them to cover a given distance, and the recoil to attain 

 a higher altitude. 



2. The low country Wander oo is replaced in the hills 

 by the larger species, P. ursinus, which inhabits the 

 mountain zone. The natives, who designate the latter 

 the Maha or Great Wanderoo, to distinguish it from 

 the Kaloo, or black one, with which they are familiar, 

 describe it as much wilder and more powerful than its 

 congener of the lowland forests. It is rarely seen by 

 Europeans, this portion of the country having till very 

 recently been but partially opened ; and even now it is 

 difficult to observe its habits, as it seldom approaches 

 the few roads which wind through these deep solitudes. 

 At early morning, ere the day begins to dawn, its loud 

 and peculiar howl, which consists of a quick repetition 



