Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Mammalia).djvu/53

Rh another specimen 18 and 10. These are from Travancore specimens measured by Mr. F. W. Bourdillon, and show much variation in the length of the tail. A female skull measures:—Length to occiput 4·4 inches, basal length 3·1, breadth 2·9.

Distribution. The forests of the Syhadri range or Western Ghats near the Malabar coast from about 14° north to Cape Comorin, and at a considerable elevation above the sea. Most common in Cochin and Travancore.

Habits. The lion-tailed Monkey, according to Jerdon, to whom we are indebted for the only authentic account of this animal in a wild state, inhabits the most dense and unfrequented forests of the hills near the Malabar coast in herds of from twelve to twenty or more. It is shy and wary. In captivity it is sulky and savage, and not easily taught. The call of the male is said (J. A. S. B. xxviii, p. 283) to resemble the voice of a man.

As I have shown elsewhere (P. Z. S. 1887, p. 620), this monkey is not Simia silenus of Linnæus, nor is it S. veter of the same author. As, however, the specific name silenus has been used generally for this species for more than a century, naturalists are unwilling to change it. The name Wanderoo, usually applied to M. silenus by European naturalists, is also a mistake, being the Ceylon name of the Semnopitheci, erroneously given to the present species by Buffon. The "lion-tailed Monkey" is a name of Pennant's.

 


 * Macacus arctoides, Is. Geoffr. Mag. Zool. 1833, Cl. i, pl. 11; Murie, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 770; Anderson, An. Zool. Res. p. 45, pls, i, ii; id. Cat. p. 74.
 * Papio melanotus, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1839, p. 31.
 * Macacus brunneus, Anderson, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 628; id. 1872, p. 203, pl. xii (juv.).
 * Inuus speciosus, Blyth, Mam. Birds Burma, p. 6.

Hair on head and shoulders very long, as much as 4½ inches in adults. Tail very short, almost rudimentary, sparsely clad with hair or naked in old animals; buttocks naked for some distance around callosities. Caudal vertebræ 11 (probably fewer in some individuals).

Colour. Dark brown; in some specimens blackish brown above, paler below. In the young the hairs are the sauje tint throughout, in older individuals the terminal portion of each hair is very closely and minutely annulated with several alternating rings of golden yellow and dark brown. Eace and buttocks bright red.

Dimensions. Probably about 2 feet in length, the tail only one to two inches. No trustworthy measurements of adults are recorded. An adult male skull measures 5·3 inches in extreme length, 3·7 in basal length, and 3·5 in zygomatic breadth.

Distribution. Not very well ascertained. Apparently this monkey is found in some of the hill-ranges south of Assam, and