GUENONS. 
93 
the nearest approach to the langurs and their allies. All of them, like the other 
African monkeys to be subsequently mentioned, are characterised by each individual 
hair being marked by a series of different-coloured rings, which imparts to the 
fur the peculiar mottled appearance with which we are familiar. 
In disposition these monkeys are docile and easily taught, and so well do they 
thrive in captivity that it is not uncommon for them to breed in menageries. In 
consequence of this docile disposition, and their comparatively hardy constitution, 
as well as from the facility with which they learn tricks, and to obey the word of 
command, they, or the representatives of the next genus, are generally chosen as 
companions by the peripatetic organ-grinders. Mischievous as a monkey, is truer 
of the guenons than of any other members of the order to which they belong; 
and it is largely to them that the monkey-house at the Zoological Society’s Gardens 
owes it popularity. 
„„ , Like the langurs, the guenons are essentially arboreal; and they 
are found m their native wilds m large troops, which reveal their 
proximity by their incessant chattering. Not only, therefore, is the solitary 
monkey of the London organ-grinder to be commiserated for having exchanged 
the sunny atmosphere of his native African forests for the gloom of an English 
winter, but likewise for the loss of the merry companions with which he was wont 
to associate. 
In saying that the guenons are docile, we should guard ourselves by adding, 
docile for a monkey, since in the strict sense of the word all monkeys are far less 
docile and less susceptible of education than many other Mammals. This, however, 
by no means implies that monkeys have not a very high degree of intelligence. 
In regard to this point we may quote a very suggestive paragraph from Mr. 
Blanford. “ It is the commonest mistake,” he writes, “ amongst superficial observers, 
and even amongst naturalists, to confound docility and intelligence among animals, 
and to measure their intellectual powers by the facility with which they can be 
taught. Hence the very common, but, as it appears to me, very incorrect notion, 
that monkeys are of inferior intelligence to such animals as dogs and elephants. 
In reality they are less docile, less willing to learn, and less adapted to captivity; 
moreover, being of but little use to man, far less trouble has been taken in studying 
their habits. Thus while dog- and elephant - breaking engage all the time and 
mental resources of particular classes of men, the instruction of monkeys is left to 
the unaided efforts of amateurs and organ-grinders. The negro race amongst men 
appears to be far better adapted for slavery than most savage races, being more 
docile in a state of captivity; but it is scarcely proved to be more intelligent on 
that account. The same reasoning will doubtless apply to animals. I have often 
seen dogs and monkeys kept together, and in every instance it has appeared to me 
that the monkey ruled the dog, and that the dog, although the more powerful 
animal, feared the monkey; and I can only account for this by the superior 
intelligence of the monkey.” 
In their native condition the guenons go in separate families or droves, each 
under the leadership of an old male; and it appears that each drove has its own 
particular limits of territory beyond which it cannot go without intruding on the 
domains of another drove, an invasion which is treated as at once being a casus 
