THN GIBBONS. 
77 
THE WHITE-HANDED OR LAR GIBBON .♦ 
A well-known kind of Gibbon, which is found in Tenasserim, and is called the White-handed 
Gibbon, or Hylobates lar . The old Latin dictionaries translated “ lar ” as a god who preserved both 
house and land, and presided over cities and houses, or the chimney or fireside ; but this evidently 
■does not apply to the Gibbon. But the Lar, or Lares, were demons, genii, or sprites, and probably 
the sprite-like activity of the Gibbons in their own woods suggested the name. 
The Hylobates Lar is found in great abundance in all the forests skirting the hills, which run 
the white-handed GIBBON. (Prom a stuffed specimen.) 
from north to south in the country of Tenasserim, south-west of Burmah. They ascend the hills up to 
an elevation of from 3,000 to 3,500 feet, but not higher, and are met with in parties of from eight to 
twenty in number, composed of individuals of all ages. It is rare to see a solitary one ; occasionally, 
however, an old male will stray apart from the flock, and perch on the summit of some vast tree, whence 
his howls are heard for miles around. The forests which these animals inhabit resound with their 
cries from sunrise to about nine in the morning, and them usual call may be thus rendered : — 
cres. ad lib. 
A? 
s 
ffr 
tZ 
dim. 
Woo, 
a - woo. 
a - woo. 
a - wow 
The sounds vary from the deep notes of the old ones to the sharp treble of the young, in horrible 
unison. During these vocal efforts they appear to resort to the tops of the loftiest trees, and to call 
* Hylobates lar . 
11 
