from M: rhesus, and when the varions specimens whioh were forwarded by Hodgson
from the southern region of Nepal to the British Museum are oritically examined
and oompared with the common htmdâr of Hindustan, the observer searches in vain
for any character of speoifio importance by which to separate them. Also, when
the close proximity of the southern portion of Nepal to the Terai is kept in view,
along with the circumstance tha t M. rhesus is widely distributed over the latter
region, there is nothing remarkable in the fact that the animals of both localities
agree.
In the British Museum there are two skulls of M. oinops presented by Hodgson,
hut unaccompanied by their skins. The one is a male and the other a female. In
the male, the naso-orbital process of the maxilla is nearly vertical and the nasals are
rather deeply concave, and the portions of the maxilla lying between the nasals and
the orbital margins are conoave or depressed; the breadth across the base of the
muzzle being but little in excess of its breadth over the anterior margins of the
canine alveoli: but all of these characters belong to a not uncommon type of
M. rhesus, in which, however, the relative hreadth of the muzzle at its base and at
its extremity is the subject of considerable diversity, apart altogether from the
effects of age. This skull is fully adult, and as it is interesting as a ferine
example of this species, I give the accompanying figures of it (figs. 5 and 6).
Fig. 5.—Skull of M. rhesus, from Nepal, the type of Hodgson’s M. {pithex) oinops, f nat. size.
The female skull also is fully adult, and it differs from the male in its much smaller
size, and in being smooth and rounded, the frontals arching upwards and backwards
from the supraorbital margins, which do not form ridges. In aged females, however
the supraorbital ridges become well marked, also the temporal ridges.
A monkey resembling M. rhesus occurs in Kashmir, and is sometimes found a t an
elevation of 10,000 feet. I t is described as being a redder monkey than M. rhesus,
with a perfectly distinct cry. I t is called by the natives the Funj or Fonj. Its
specific characters are unknown, but should it resemble the monkey which lived a few
years ago in the Zoological Gardens, London, where it was known as the Kashmir monkey
(if. pelops), it would appear not to differ specifically from i f . rhesus. This animal,
however, supposed to be from Kashmir, was purchased either at Agra or Delhi from
a native who asserted that it came from Kashmir; but knowing how freely the term
“ Kashmir” is employed by natives who consider that the value of an object is enhanced
in the eyes of Europeans by its being assigned to Kashmir, no reliance can be placed
on the alleged habitat. At the same time this so-called Kashmir monkey now deposited
in the British Museum (71. 3. 3. 5.) has the rufous colouring of the hinder half
of the body more brilliant than in the generality of examples of M. rhesus from the
plains, but with the colours conforming to the same kind and distribution, so that
the differences between, them are only of that grade which is generally considered
as distinctive of a race.
Hodgson has also figured in his manuscript drawings a pale, almost albino-like,
Macaque from Sikhim, but no definite information regarding it has been recorded.