Cercocebus cynomologus, Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 101 (1876).
Macacus cynomologus, Anderson, Zool. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 73 (1878; with synonymy); Blanford, Faun. Brit. India Mamm., p. 21 (1891).
Characters.—Body large and massive; head large and broad; legs short and stout; loins slender; hinder quarters heavy; tail thick at the root, nearly equalling the body in length; muzzle long; nose not prominent above the face; eyes large; ears erect, pointed, nearly hairless; frontal ridges not much overhanging the eyes.
Face pale brown, or livid with a bluish-white patch internal to the eyes, the eyelids bluish-white; ears, hands, and feet black; callosities bright or dusky flesh-colour; fur straight; hair of the crown not elongated, directed backwards, sometimes radiated or slightly crested; general colour of the upper surface dusky or greyish-brown, varying to reddish- or golden-brown; under surface of the body and inside of the limbs brownish-grey to white, the hairs being dark at their roots, and higher up ringed with yellow and brown or black; scrotum brown, blotched with livid blue. Length, 22 inches; tail, 19 inches. The females are smaller.
Of this species there are several varieties or races, one in which the prominent colour is golden-rufous (M. aureus, Geoffr.); another (M. carbonarius, F. Cuv.) in which blackish-brown is the prevailing tint of the face, naked hands, feet, and callosities; a third race has a light yellow fur (M. cristatus, Gray); still another (M. philippensis), from the Philippine Islands, is nearly white.
Distribution.—This species is one of the most widely distributed of all the Macaques. The more typical specimens are found in Burmah and Arakan. In Siam a pale variety with less orange in the annulations of its hairs occurs. In the Nicobar Islands (perhaps introduced as Dr. Blanford suggests), in the Malay Peninsula, and in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombock, and Timor, the darker (or M. carbonarius) variety seems to predominate. From Borneo—where it ascends to 5,000 feet above the sea—comes the crested, and perhaps also the golden-rufous coloured race (the true home of the latter being still unknown). In the Philippine Archipelago—in Mindanao, Basilan, Luzon, Negros, Samar, and others of the islets—the very light yellow coloured race is met with.
Habits.—The Crab-eating Macaque is gregarious, going about in troops of fifteen to twenty, of both sexes and all ages. They frequent the forests near the river mouths, and coastal mangrove swamps, where they may be constantly seen wading about in the mud, picking up Shrimps and Crabs, which are their favourite food. Tickell says that they swim and dive well. The females are easily trained, and also the young males; but these, when old, are apt to become ill-natured and uncertain in disposition. The mothers are good and tender to their young one, which clings closely with hands and feet for the first few weeks to the hair of the chest or arm-pits and abdomen.
Mr. Everett met with this species in the islands of Sirhassen and Bunguran in the Natuna group, where he says they were abundant. He adds: "They come down in large parties to the sea-shore, sitting in groups on the larger boulders, or playing and hunting for prey along the sands, when the tide is out. In mature animals, the face, hands, and feet are dark brown; the lower eyelids a paler brown; the upper eyelids and upper halves of the orbits whitish. In a very young male the bare skin of the face was livid brown, rather paler on the eyelids, and the hands and feet were dark brown" (Oldfield Thomas and Hartert, Nov. Zool., i., p. 654, 1894).
XVI. THE TOQUE MACAQUE. MACACUS PILEATUS.
Simia pileata, Shaw, Gen. Zool., i., p. 53 (1800).