LANGURS. 69 
of the monkeys and baboons. The common ancestor of the two groups must indeed 
probably be sought in some long extinct type more nearly akin to the lemurs. 
Although the majority of the Old World monkeys and baboons are inhabitants 
of the warmer regions of the eastern hemisphere, yet the group is by no means 
so strictly confined to tropical and sub-tropical regions as we have seen to be the 
case with the Man-like Apes. Indeed, some of the Asiatic species are capable of 
withstanding a very considerable degree of cold, and may be found among the 
snows of the Himalaya and Tibet. 
The Langurs. 
Genus Semnopithecus. 
With this group of long-tailed Asiatic monkeys, we come to the first of three 
nearly allied genera, all of which are characterised by their extremely slender and 
“ lanky ” build, by the excessive length of their tails, by the legs being longer than 
their arms, and by the absence of cheek-pouches. All the above characteristics can 
be verified in the living animal, but there is one other for the examination of which 
we must turn to the dissecting-room of the anatomist. This internal character 
relates to the stomach, which, instead of having the simple bladder-like form which 
it assumes in all other members of the order, is divided into a number of pouches 
or sacs. When the peculiar pouched stomach was first described scarcely anything 
was known as to the habits and food of the monkeys in which it is found. Sir 
Richard Owen, however, sagaciously suggested that from the analogy presented by 
this peculiar type of stomach to that which characterises the Ruminating Hoofed 
Mammals, as well as some other vegetable-feeding animals, it would be found that 
the food of these monkeys consisted in great part of leaves. This suggestion has 
been fully confirmed by subsequent observations; and although the habits of the 
langurs are still but imperfectly known, yet it is stated by Mr. W. T. Blanford that 
they are more purely herbivorous than those monkeys which are provided with 
cheek-pouches, and that a very considerable portion of their food consists of leaves 
and the tender shoots and young twigs of trees. The presence of this remarkable 
kind of stomach is, indeed, as we have already mentioned, a kind of compensation 
for the absence of cheek-pouches; it being more suited to the needs of these animals 
than the pouches would be. 
The langurs are so-called from the name applied by the natives of Northern 
India to those species of the group which inhabit the outer ranges of the Himalaya. 
Langurs, which are known in Germany as Schlankaffen, or slender monkeys, are 
found over a large portion of South-Eastern Asia, being especially abundant in 
India and Burma, and represented by one species in the highlands of Tibet. 
As their German name implies, the bodies and limbs of these 
Structure 
monkeys are exceedingly slender; while the tail is so long that very 
generally, and invariably in all the species from India, Ceylon, and Burma, it is 
actually longer than the whole length of the head and body together. This is well 
shown in our figure of the true langur or hanuman monkey. In all the species 
the thumb is well developed; this being a character of great importance, as the 
