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 silenus

by William Thomas Blanford

 

5. Macacus silenus. The lion-tailed Monkey.

Simia silenus, Schreb. Säugethiere, i, p. 87, pl. xi, partim (nec Linn.).

Simia ferox, Shaw, Mus. Leverianum, p. 69, pl. (1792).

Inuus silenus, Blyth, Cat. p. 7; Jerdon, Mam. p. 10.

Silenus veter, Gray, Cat. Monkeys &c. B. M. 1870, p. 32 (nec Simia veter, Linn.).

Macacus silenus, Anderson, An. Zool. Res. p. 93; id. Cat. p. 66.

Shia bandar, H.; Nil bandar, Beng.; Chingala, Nella manthi, Mal.; Singalika, Can.; Karingode, Kurg.; Kondamachu, Tel.; Kurankarangu, Tamul.

Fig. 5.—Macacus silenus.

Fig. 5.—Macacus silenus.

Fur long. A ruff of longer light-coloured hair on chin, throat, cheeks, and temples, encircling the head, except on the forehead, and concealing the ears, which are naked. Hair radiating from centre of crown. Tail slender, about one half to three quarters the length of the head and body, and tufted at the tip; caudal vertebræ 17.

Colour. Black throughout, except the beard and ruff, which are grey. In some young specimens the abdomen is brown. Face and hands black, the callosities of a fleshy tinge.

Dimensions. Head and body of a male 21 inches, tail 13½; of another 20 and 15: of a female, head and body 18, tail 12½; of another specimen 18 and 10. These are from Travancore specimens measured by Mr. F. W. Bourdillon, and show much variation in the length of the tail. A female skull measures:—Length to occiput 4·4 inches, basal length 3·1, breadth 2·9.

Distribution. The forests of the Syhadri range or Western Ghats near the Malabar coast from about 14° north to Cape Comorin, and at a considerable elevation above the sea. Most common in Cochin and Travancore.

Habits. The lion-tailed Monkey, according to Jerdon, to whom 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 (J. A. S. B. xxviii, p. 283) to resemble the voice of a man.

As I have shown elsewhere (P. Z. S. 1887, p. 620), this monkey is not Simia silenus of Linnæus, nor is it S. veter of the same author. As, however, the specific name silenus has been used generally for this species for more than a century, naturalists are unwilling to change it. The name Wanderoo, usually applied to M. silenus by European naturalists, is also a mistake, being the Ceylon name of the Semnopitheci, erroneously given to the present species by Buffon. The "lion-tailed Monkey" is a name of Pennant's.