A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 2 (of 2)Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Science
A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 2 (of 2)
Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Primates
FEMALE.--Limbs redder than in the male; inner side of the arms, and patches
on the chest and belly indigo blue.
YOUNG.--Hair of the crown not so much flattened down or so radiating as in
the adult; the face more old-fashioned and exquisitely comical; the tail
nearly naked; and the cheeks, palms, soles, and callosities pale pinkish.
(_Templeton._)
DISTRIBUTION.--The Toque Macaque holds in Ceylon the place occupied by the
Bonnet Macaque in Southern India.
{35}HABITS.--_Macacus pileatus_ closely resembles the Bonnet Macaque in
size, habits, and form. It is known to the Singhalese by the name of
Rilawa. "The little graceful grimacing _Rilawa_," as Sir J. Emerson Tennent
writes, "is the universal pet and favourite of both natives and Europeans.
The Tamil conjurers teach it to dance, and in their wanderings carry it
from village to village, clad in a grotesque dress, to exhibit its lively
performances. It does not object to smoke tobacco." Knox, in his
interesting account of the island, gives an accurate description of the
Rilawas, with "no beards, white faces, and long hair on the top of their
heads, which parteth and hangeth down like a man's, and which do a deal of
mischief to the corn, and are so impudent that they will come into their
gardens and eat such fruit as grows there."
XVII. THE BONNET MACAQUE. MACACUS SINICUS.
_Simia sinica_, Linn., Mantissa, Plant., p. 521 (1771).
_Cercocebus radiatus_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 98 (1812).
_Le Toque mâle_, F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat., Mamm., livr. xviii. (Juin, 1820).
_Macacus sinicus_, Blyth, J. A. S., Beng., xvi., p. 1272 (1847); Gray,
Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 28 (1870); Anderson, Zool. Exped. Yun-nan, p.
91 (1878; with synonymy); Blanford, Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm., p. 23
(1891).
_Cercocebus sinicus_, Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 99 (1876).
CHARACTERS.--Face nude; forehead thinly haired and wrinkled; cheeks hollow;
muzzle narrow and protuberant; ears naked and rather prominent; tail nearly
as long as the body.
Hair in general moderately long, straight and smooth, that on the crown
elongated and radiating in all directions from the vertex, but not covering
the forehead, on which the short and {36}sparse hairs are parted down the
middle. Length, 27 inches; tail, 24 inches, but often proportionately
longer.
General colour of the back and the upper side of the tail brownish-olive;
outside of the limbs greyish--the hairs grey at the roots, ringed higher up
with dull yellow and black bars; under surface of the body and inside of
the limbs, and under side of the tail whitish; face, ears, callosities, and
other nude parts livid flesh-colour.
Skull long, lower than that of _M. rhesus_; orbits with the transverse
diameter greater than the vertical.
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