Distribution. Originally described from specimens collected by Sir A. P. Phayre in Arakan. Anderson has since referred to this species specimens from Upper Burma, and a young animal from Perak, Malacca. The latter identification is very questionable, as the Malay peninsula is inhabited by the true pig-tailed Monkey, M. nemestrinus. A few individuals have been introduced into the Andaman Islands, but the species is not indigenous.
Habits. Scarcely anything is known, except that the young and females are docile' in captivity, old males fierce. In this, as probably in most other respects, this species is very similar to the next.
8. Macacus nemestrinus. The pig-tailed Monkey.
- Simia nemestrina, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 35 (1766).
- Inuus nemestrinus, Blyth, Cat. p. 7.
- Macacus nemestrinus, Anderson, An. Zool. Res. p. 77; id. Cat. p. 72.
Myouk-padi, Burmese; Ta-o-ti, Burmese of Tavoy; Bruh, Malay.
Body stout; limbs long and powerful; muzzle in adults much produced. Fur slightly lengthened over shoulders, and short generally. Hair radiating in centre of crown, but not surrounded by the distinct horseshoe-crest of M. leoninus (there is, however, an approximation to it in some specimens). Tail very slender, rather more than one third the length of the head and body. Caudal vertebræ 18.
The muzzle, in old male skulls especially, is greatly produced, and much resembles that of the Baboons (Cynocephalus) in form. The orbits are nearly as high as broad.
Colour. Crown of the head dark brown or black, except at the sides; a broad black stripe extends throughout the middle of the back in many specimens, becoming broader on the rump; but in young animals and in some adults the back is brown throughout. Fur of upper surface generally yellowish brown, but varying from pale orange-brown to blackish brown in different specimens; lower parts greyer brown or albescent; hands and feet sometimes darker than the limbs. Tail black above, light yellowish brown below. The fur on the upper parts and the outside of the limbs is closely annulated with yellow and brown; basal portion of hair grey.
Dimensions. Tickell gives as the measurements of an old male from Yé:—Head and body 18¼ inches, tail 7¾, hand 3¾, foot 6, height at shoulder 16; the size, however, varies much, and many individuals attain a much greater development, rivalling, as Anderson remarks, a good-sized mastiff both in height and strength. Of two skulls of adult males in the British Museum one measures 6·5 inches long from the occiput and 5 from the foramen, by 4·2 broad across the zygomatic arches: whilst another male adult skull is only 5·78 and 4·4 long and 3·8 broad; and a third from Mergui 5, 3·6, and 3·5. Females must be very nearly as large as males; the skull of a very old specimen from Tenasserim is 6·2 and 4·2
