The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma/Mammalia/Class Mammalia/Subclass Eutheria/Order Primates/Suborder Anthropoidea/Family Cercopithecidæ/Subfamily Cercopithecinæ/Genus Macacus/Macacus leoninus
7. Macacus leoninus. The Burmese pig-tailed Monkey.
- Inuus leoninus, Blyth, Cat. p. 7 (1863); id. Mam. Birds Burma, p. 4.
- Macacus andamanensis, Bartlett, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 467.
- Macacus leoninus, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 663, pl. xxxv; Anderson, An. Zool. Res. p. 52; id. Cat. p. 71.
Myouk-mai, Burm.; Myouk-la-haing, Arakan.
A somewhat short-limbed, stout form. The hairs on the shoulders and fore part of back very long, 4 to 5 inches in males, but rather short on the lower back and rump. Head broad, rather flat; hair radiating in the centre of the crown and surrounded in front and
_-_Fig._6.png)
Fig. 6.—Macacus leoninus. (P. Z. S. 1870, pl. xxxv.)
on both sides by a horseshoe-shaped crest, the anterior or supra-orbital portion of which consists of very stiff hairs. Tail about one third the length of the head and body, slender, well clad with hair. Caudal vertebræ 17 to 18.
The skull is distinguished from that of M. nemestrinus by having the muzzle much shorter.
Colour. Males are dark brown above, the horseshoe-shaped crest, the lower back, and the upper surface of the tail black; sides of head and buttocks grey; lower parts, including lower surface of tail, light greyish brown. The tail is somewhat tufted, and has sometimes a bright ferruginous tuft at the end. Females are greyer and rather paler, and have no black on the head or back, though the tail is blackish above. The fur is finely annulated, except on the head, loins, tail, and buttocks, with yellow and blackish brown above, and with dusky and whitish below. On the long hair of the shoulders there are as many as ten to twelve rings, five or six of each colour, on each hair. Base of hair greyish brown. Face dusky flesh-colour.
Dimensions. Length of male: head and body 23 inches; tail without hair at end 8, with hair 10. Females considerably less. Skull of adult male 5·3 inches long from occiput, 4 from foramen, and 4 broad across the zygomatic arches; of a female 4·45 and 3·1 inches long and 2·95 broad.
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.