1840.] 



Mammalogy of the Himalayas. 



145 



an elevation of from 9,000 to 11,000 feet, as among the Pine forests in the 

 neighbourhood of Choor, and sometimes even at the verge of the snow- 

 line. Nay, it even appears to have succeeded in crossing the mountains ; 

 Turner* mentions having seen a large troop of these monkeys in Bootan, 

 where they are held in the same veneration as in Hindustan ; and that it 

 has found its way, and is capable of subsisting in a state of nature, at a 

 considerable elevation, and a comparatively low temperature, is sufficiently 

 evinced by these facts, as well as by the testimony of Fraser,-j- Traill| 

 and other intelligent travellers. Dr. Royle found it common enough in 

 the neighbourhood of Hurdwar in April, and on Tuen and Manma at 

 9,000 feet of elevation in the latter end of May and in June. 



The Bhunder, Bender, or Bandar, the Common Monkey of Bengal and 

 Upper India (Papto Bhesus), though said by Mr. Hodgson to exist in 

 the central regions of Nepal, only in the vicinity of the temples, and in a 

 semi-domestic state, whence he conjectures it to have been introduced 

 from religious motives, is also reported to abound in Kumaon ; and it is 

 highly probable, that the nearly allied species (Papio Assamensis) lately 

 discovered by Mr. M'Clelland in Assam, ascends the more eastern hills, 

 as its congener does the central and western ranges. Of this, however, 

 we have no positive knowledge, though the <;lo?e affinity of the animals 

 gives a strong degree of probability to the fact ; but the various species 

 of Monkeys which Mr. Eraser thinks may be found along the upper courses 

 of the Jumna and Ganges, rest on more questionable authority ; and it is 

 not unlikely that this intelligent traveller, as indeed he has himself con- 

 jectured, was deceived by distance, variety of size, and other circum- 

 stances, which give a very different appearance to individuals of the same 

 species. Mr, Hodgson § gives the Bonnet Monkey (CercopitheGus ra- 

 diatus) as a native of Nepal ; but this species is confined, as far as at pre- 

 sent known, to the Peninsula and western coast of India, and seems to 

 Iiave been confounded by Mr. H. with the Papio Rhesus, or Bhnnder of 

 Hindustan. The same gentleman, in a letter to the Zoological Society, 

 written some years ago, mentions that his shooters were once alarmed in 

 the Kachar, or Alpine regions of Nepal, by the appearance of a wild man, 

 which walked erect, was covered with long dark hair, and had no tail. 

 The improbability of inding a real Ape in such a situation led him to 

 question the truth of the report ; but it is well known that the woods of 

 the lower ranges to the east of Nepal contain at least one species of Gib- 

 bon, Hylohates Scyritus, called Hooloo or Hooloc by the Assamese ; and 



• J ourney to Thibet, p, 147. + Journey in the Himalayas, p 35L 

 * Asiat. Res. XVI. 153. 

 \ Proc. Zool. Soc. II. 96, 



