Characters.—Head round; muzzle wide; hair on top of the head very short; face surrounded by long hairs, concealing the ears, and meeting under the chin; ears naked; face, hands, feet, and callosities naked; tail slender, one-half to three-quarters the length of the body and tufted with hair. Length, 24 inches; tail, 10 inches.
Skull rounded; muzzle wide in front, contracted at the base, concave beneath the orbits; orbital ridges large, and the frontal bone widely depressed behind them; pre-molars and molars small. The structure of this animal is essentially that of the ordinary Macaques, although it differs from them so much in external physiognomy. (Anderson).
Body, limbs, and tail deep black; a ruff of long hairs round the head, darkish grey; chest greyish or white; tail tipped with greyish or white; face, hands, and feet black; callosities flesh-coloured.
Distribution.—"The Lion-tailed Macaque inhabits the Western Ghats from below Goa to Cape Comorin, but there is no authentic record of its existence in a wild state in Ceylon." (Anderson.) It lives at a considerable altitude above the sea.
Habits.—This species, according to Jerdon (to whom, as Dr. Blanford observes, 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 to resemble the voice of a Man.
IX. HIMALAYAN MACAQUE. MACACUS ASSAMENSIS.
Macacus assamensis, McClell.; Horsfield, P. Z. S., 1839, p. 148; Blyth, J. A. Soc. Beng., xiii., p. 746 (1844); Anderson, Zool. Exp. Yun-nan, p. 64 (1878; with synonymy); Blanford, Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm., p. 15 (1888).
Macacus pelops, Hodgs., J. A. S., Beng., ix., p. 1213 (1840); Gray, Cat. Monkeys, Brit. Mus., p. 30 (1870).
Macacus problematicus, Gray, Cat. Monkeys, Brit. Mus., p. 128 (1870); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1871, p. 222.
Macacus rheso-similis, Scl., P. Z. S., 1872, p. 495, pl. xxv. (Juv.)