Sketches of Natural History of Ceylon | Page 8

grows there.
And the Wanderoos, some as large as our English spaniel dogs, of a
darkish grey colour, and black faces with great white beards round
from ear to ear, which makes them show just like old men. This sort
does but little mischief, keeping in the woods, eating only leaves and
buds of trees, but when they are catched they will eat anything."[1]
[Footnote 1: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon, an Island in the
East Indies_.--P. i. ch. vi. p. 25. Fol. Lond. 1681. See an account of his
captivity in SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, etc., Vol. II. p.
66 n.]
KNOX, whose experience during his long captivity was confined
almost exclusively to the hill country around Kandy, spoke in all
probability of one large and comparatively powerful species,
_Presbytes ursinus_, which inhabits the lofty forests, and which, as
well as another of the same group, _P. Thersites_, was, till recently,
unknown to European naturalists. The Singhalese word Ouandura has a
generic sense, and being in every respect the equivalent fur our own
term of "monkey" it necessarily comprehends the low country species,
as well as those which inhabit other parts of the island. In point of fact,
there are no less than four animals in the island, each of which is

entitled to the name of "wanderoo."[1] Each separate species has
appropriated to itself a different district of the wooded country, and
seldom encroaches on the domain of its neighbours.
[Footnote 1: Down to a very late period, a large and somewhat
repulsive-looking monkey, common to the Malabar coast, the Silenus
veter, _Linn._, was, from the circumstance of his possessing a "great
white beard," incorrectly assumed to be the "wanderoo" of Ceylon,
described by KNOX; and under that usurped name it has figured in
every author from Buffon to the present time. Specimens of the true
Singhalese species were, however, received in Europe; but in the
absence of information in this country as to their actual habitat, they
were described, first by Zimmerman, on the continent, under the name
of, _Leucoprymnus cephalopterus_, and subsequently by Mr. E.
Bennett, under that of Semnopithecus Nestor (_Proc. Zool. Soc._ pt. i. p.
67: 1833); the generic and specific characters being on this occasion
most carefully pointed out by that eminent naturalist. Eleven years later
Dr. Templeton forwarded to the Zoological Society a description,
accompanied by drawings, of the wanderoo of the western maritime
districts of Ceylon, and noticed the fact that the wanderoo of authors
(_S. veter_) was not to be found in the island except as an introduced
species in the custody of the Arab horse-dealers, who visit the port of
Colombo at stated periods. Mr. Waterhouse, at the meeting (_Proc.
Zool. Soc._ p. 1: 1844) at which this communication was read,
recognised the identity of the subject of Dr. Templeton's description
with that already laid before them by Mr. Bennett; and from this period
the species in question was believed to truly represent the wanderoo of
Knox. The later discovery, however, of the _P. ursinus_ by Dr. Kelaart,
in the mountains amongst which we are assured that Knox spent so
many years of captivity, reopens the question, but at the same time
appears to me clearly to demonstrate that in this latter we have in
reality the animal to which his narrative refers.]
1. Of the four species found in Ceylon, the most numerous in the island,
and the one best known in Europe, is the Wanderoo of the low country,
the _P. cephalopterus_ of Zimmerman.[1] Although common in the
southern and western provinces, it is never found at a higher elevation
than 1300 feet. It is an active and intelligent creature, little larger than
the common bonneted Macaque, and far from being so mischievous as

others of the monkeys in the island. In captivity it is remarkable for the
gravity of its demeanour and for an air of melancholy in its expression
and movements which are completely in character with its snowy beard
and venerable aspect. In disposition it is gentle and confiding, sensible
in the highest degree of kindness, and eager for endearing attention,
uttering a low plaintive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is
particularly cleanly in its habits when domesticated, and spends much
of its time in trimming its fur, and carefully divesting its hair of
particles of dust.
[Footnote 1: Leucoprymnus Nestor, Bennett.]
Those which I kept at my house near Colombo were chiefly fed upon
plantains and bananas, but for nothing did they evince a greater
partiality than the rose-coloured flowers of the red hibiscus (H.
_rosa-sinensis_).
These they devoured with unequivocal gusto; they likewise relished the
leaves of many other trees, and even the bark of a few of the more
succulent ones. A hint might possibly be taken from this circumstance