III. KIRK'S GUEREZA. COLOBUS KIRKI.
Colobus kirkii, Gray, P. Z. S., 1868, p. 180, pl. xv.; id., Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 127 (1870); Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 25 (1876); Kirk, Ann. and Mag. N. H. (5), xiii., p. 307 (1884).
Guereza kirkii, Trouess., Consp. Mamm., p. 14 (1879).
Piliocolobus kirki, Rochebr., Faun. Sénég., Mamm. Suppl., p. 112, pl. vi. (1887).
Characters.—Face and ears naked, bluish-black; tip of the nose greyish-white; head, with long divergent hairs, forming a kind of cap, bent backwards over the forehead; crown of head, back, and tail, reddish-brown, paler towards the extremity; the nape, shoulders, arms, outer and anterior aspects of the fore-arms, the centre of the outer aspect of the thighs and legs, and the hands and feet, black; forehead, cheeks, chest, front aspect of the shoulders, the whole of the under side of the body, and the inner side of the limbs, white; anterior aspect of the lower part of the arm, the hind-margin of the fore-arms, and the anterior and posterior aspects of the thighs and legs, greyish-white. (Gray.) Length of body, 25½ inches; of tail, 31 inches.
Distribution.—Island of Zanzibar. This Monkey was first sent to Europe by Sir John Kirk in 1868. Its discoverer, writing in 1884, says that even in 1868 the Monkey was rare, but was still to be found in many of the wooded districts of that island. He writes: "I am not aware that it has been found in Pemba Island or on the mainland; and now I discover that, if not extinct, it has become so rare as not to be procurable, even when I sent the hunters over the island. I have a report that it exists still in one spot, which they could not reach. I believe that two specimens were sent to Germany some time ago; but it looks as if the animal will be lost to science. This is due to the destruction of forest and jungle over the island."
"Colobus kirkii," writes Mr. H. H. Johnston, in 1886, "had disappeared from nearly every part of the island of Zanzibar, but a rumour prevailed that it still lingered on a clump of forest as yet unvisited by hunters. Thither Sir John sent his chasseurs to report on the Monkey's existence. After a week's absence they returned, triumph illumining their swarthy lineaments. 'Well, did you find them?' asked the British Consul General. 'Yes,' replied the men with glee, 'and we killed them every one!' wherewith twelve Monkey-corpses were flung upon the floor, and Colobus kirki joined the Dodo, the Auk, the Rhytina and the Moa, in the limbo of species extinguished by the act of man."
PLATE XXXIII.
BAY GUEREZA.