ted to itself a different district of
the wooded country, and seldom encroaches on the domain of its
neighbours.

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] It is an active and intelligent
creature, not much 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 is completely
in character with its snowy beard and venerable aspect. Its disposition
is gentle and confiding, it is in the highest degree sensible of
kindness, and eager for endearing attentions, 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_.]

Although common in the southern and western provinces, it is never found
at a higher elevation than 1300 feet.

When observed in their native wilds, a party of twenty or thirty of
these creatures is generally busily engaged in the search for berries
and buds. They are seldom to be seen on the ground, and then only when
they have descended to recover seeds or fruit that have fallen at the
foot of their favourite trees. In their alarm, when disturbed, their
leaps are prodigious; but generally speaking, their progress is made not
so much by _leaping_ as by swinging from branch to branch, using their
powerful arms alternately; and when baffled by distance, flinging
themselves obliquely so as to catch the lower boughs of an opposite
tree, the momentum acquired by their descent being sufficient to cause a
rebound, that carries them again upwards, till they can grasp a higher
branch; and thus continue their headlong flight. In these perilous
achievements, wonder is excited less by the surpassing agility of these
little creatures, frequently encumbered as they are by their young,
which cling to them in their career, than by the quickness of their eye
and the unerring accuracy with which they seem almost to calculate the
angle at which a descent would enable them to cover a given distance,
and the recoil to elevate themselves again to a higher altitude.

2. The low country Wander