62 
APES AND MONKEYS. 
ably smaller than the siamang, standing about thirty inches in height; and it is 
also of a lighter and more slender build. Although subject to great individual 
variation in colour, it may be always recognised by the pale colour of the hands 
and feet, of which the upper surfaces are usually either white or yellowish-white. 
Another distinctive characteristic is to be found in the usual presence round the 
black skin of the naked face of a complete ring of more or less nearly white 
hairs; which, as is well shown in our illustration, imparts a most peculiar physi¬ 
ognomy to the animal. Occasionally, however, this white ring is almost absent; 
different individuals showing a gradation in this respect from those in which it is 
but very slightly developed, to those in which it attains its full proportions. The 
general colour of the body and limbs of this gibbon varies from a full black, through 
various fulvous shades, to a yellowish-white. In opposition to what usually obtains 
in Mammals some individuals of this species have the back lighter than the under 
parts of the body; and it may occasionally be much variegated. 
The white-handed gibbon is found throughout the Malay Peninsula, as far 
north as the province of Tenasserim, and may possibly reach into Lower Pegu. 
It inhabits the forests skirting the mountains, at elevations varying from about 
three thousand to three thousand five hundred feet above the sea-level. 
Colonel Tickell has given an excellent account of this gibbon, 
both in its wild state and in confinement. It appears from this 
description that the white-handed gibbon is somewhat more heavily built and less 
agile than the hoolock (to be noticed next); while it walks on the ground less 
steadily. It is also said to differ from the hoolock in its manner of drinking— 
scooping up water in its hands, and thus carrying it to its mouth, instead of 
applying its mouth directly to the surface of the water. The same observer also 
notices a great difference in the voice of the two species. The white-handed 
gibbons are also stated to go in smaller parties than the other species; the number 
in a drove, according to Colonel Tickell, being usually from six to twenty. They 
depend almost entirely on their hands in passing from bough to bough, and use 
their feet to carry food. He has seen a drove of these apes escape in this manner 
with the plunder stolen from a garden made by the Karen tribes near the forests 
which they frequent. Like other species of the group, the white-handed gibbon 
almost invariably has but a single young one at a time. The young are born at 
the commencement of the winter season; and cling to the body of the mother for 
nearly seven months, after which they shift for themselves. 
Mode of Life. 
The Hoolock (Hylobates hoolock). 
One of the best known of all the gibbons is the hoolock, or white-browed 
gibbon, which, as we have said, takes it name from its characteristic dissyllabic 
cry. This is the only species which occurs in India, where it is confined to the 
north-eastern districts, being found in the hill ranges south of the Assam valley, 
as well as in the provinces of Sylhet, Cachar, and Manipur. Thence it ranges to the 
east and southwards into the liill-forests of the Irawadi valley near Bhamo, in 
Upper Burma, and in the neighbourhood of Chittagong and Arakan. It may also 
occur near Martaban, in Upper Tenasserim; and the extent of its range on the 
