A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 2 (of 2)Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Science
A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 2 (of 2)
Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Primates
_Presbytis_, Eschsch. Kotzeb. Entdeck. Reis., iii., p. 196 (1821).
The members of this genus have thin and elongated bodies, long limbs, and a
very long and slender tail. The head is rounded, and shorter than in the
Guenons; the muzzle short, depressed, and but little prominent. The thumb,
although shorter than that digit among the Guenons and Macaques, is present
in all the species, and forms a good prehensile finger with a flat nail.
The hands and feet are long and narrow, and {101}the finger-nails convex;
the great-toe is thick and well-developed. The callosities are small as
compared with the Guenons; the fur is abundant, and generally long, soft,
and often glossy; and over the eyes they have usually a ridge of stiff
hairs projecting in front. The members of this genus, as already observed,
have no cheek-pouches; they have, however, a large laryngeal sac formed and
situated as described above (p. 84).
The skull is round; the eye-sockets large, with a very prominent
superciliary ridge projecting over them; the space between the eyes is
broad, and the lower jaw is deep. The upper molars are four-cusped, and the
posterior lower molar five-cusped.
The Langurs are, when young, good tempered and easily tamed; but when old
they become sulky and ill-natured. They live chiefly in forest regions, in
troops of considerable size. "This genus is spread over almost the whole of
the Oriental region wherever the forests are extensive. They extend along
the Himalayas to beyond Simla, where a species has been observed at an
altitude of 11,000 feet, playing among fir-trees laden with snow-wreaths.
On the west side of India they are not found to the north of the 14th
parallel of latitude. On the east they extend into Arakan, and to Borneo
and Java, but not apparently into Cambodia. Along the eastern extension of
the Himalayas they again occur in Eastern Thibet, a remarkable species (_S.
roxellana_) having been discovered at Moupin (about lat. 32° N.), in the
highest forests, where the winters are severe and where the vegetation is
wholly that of the Palæarctic region." (_Wallace._)
The total number of Monkeys inhabiting the islands of the Eastern
Archipelago is, according to the most recent census, as follows: In
Sumatra, 12; Banka, 4; Borneo, 14; Java, 5; Celebes, 2; Natuna, Bali,
Lombock, Flores, Sumbawa, and Timor, 1 each; the Philippine and Sulu
Archipelagos, 1 each.
{102}I. BARBE'S LANGUR. SEMNOPITHECUS BARBII.
_Presbytis barbei_, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng., xvi., p. 734 (1847); id., Cat.
Mamm. As. Soc. Mus., p. 14 (1863); id., Mamm. Burma, p. 11 (1875).
_Semnopithecus barbei_, Anderson, Zool. Res. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 12
(1878); id., Cat. Mus. Calc., p. 48; Blanford, Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm.,
p. 39 (1891).
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