Female.—Generally similar to the male, but more frequently entirely pale yellow, with the hands and feet paler.
Distribution.—Aracan, Lower Pegu, Tenasserim, and the Malay Peninsula.
Habits.—The White-handed Gibbon inhabits the upland forests as high as 3,500 feet above the sea; living in troops numbering from ten to twenty-five. Its habits are very similar to those of other Gibbons, although Tickell observed that they were less light and active than the Hoolock, and had a different voice. It is said to drink, as the Siamang does, by dipping its hands into the water, and not to put its mouth down to it like the Hoolock. "So entirely does it depend on its hands for locomotion amongst trees," remarks Dr. Blanford, "that it carries everything in its feet. Tickell, from whom I take these details, says that he has seen a party of H. lar escape thus with their plunder from a Karen garden in the forest." "The young are born in the early part of the cold season," continues Dr. Blanford, "and each sticks to the body of its mother for about seven months, after which it begins gradually to shift for itself."
V. THE HOOLOCK. HYLOBATES HOOLOCK.
Simia lar, Phil. Trans., lix., p. 607 (1769.)
Simia hoolock, Harlan, Tr. Am. Phil. Soc., iv. (n. s.), p. 52, pl. 2 (1834.)
Hylobates coromandus, Ogilby, P. Z. S., 1837, p. 689; Martin, Mammif. Anim., p. 415 (1841); Is. Geoffr., Arch. Mus., ii. P. 535 (1843); Blyth, J. As. Soc. Beng., xiii., p. 464 (1844.)
Hylobates hoolock, Waterh., Cat. Mamm. Mus. Zool. Soc., p. 3 (1838); Martin, Mammif. Anim., p. 416 (1841); Is. Geoffr., Arch. Mus., ii., p. 535 (1843); id., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 9 (1851); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1860, p. 86, pl. v.; Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 11 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 14 (1876); Anderson, Zool. Res. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 1 (1878; with full synonymy); Blanford, Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm., p. 5 (1891).
Hylobates hulok, Wagner, in Schreb., Säugeth. Suppl., v., p. 20 (1855.)
Hylobates niger, Harlan; Ogilby, P. Z. S., 1840, p. 21.