Zoological Society. 447 



fall into the same error, I yet committed the similar mistake of con- 

 founding the Frankfort animals with C. anubis, of which there was 

 no specimen at hand to compare them with. Since that time I have 

 had frequent opportunities of observing the latter species, which is 

 an inhabitant of the coast of Guinea, and not uncommon in our mu- 

 seums and menageries ; but it is only within the last few days that 

 the acquisition of a fine adult male specimen of Dr. Riippell's animal 

 by the Zoological Society has enabled me to compare them together, 

 and to ascertain their specific distinction. Both species are now 

 living in the Society's Gardens, and offer a rare and valuable oppor- 

 tunity for studying their characters. 



"The Abyssinian species, which was reported to have been 

 brought from Bombay, but which had no doubt been carried thither 

 on board some vessel trading to the Red Sea, possesses a higher de- 

 gree of interest than attaches to any other Cynocephal. With the 

 exception of C. hamadryas, it is the only known species in that part 

 of Africa, and must consequently have been the animal which we find 

 so frequently figured among the hieroglyphics, and which was wor- 

 shiped by the Egyptians under the name of Thoth. I have shown 

 elsewhere (Nat. Hist, of Monkeys, &c., i. 431) that the Sacred 

 Baboon of the Egyptians Avas not the C. hamadryas, as supposed by 

 Ehrenberg ; and though, from the mistake above alluded to, I was 

 at that time inclined to identify it with C. anubis, there can now be 

 no reasonable doubt that the animal which played so important a 

 part in the mythology of that remarkable people, and of whose wor- 

 ship the city of Hermopolis was the principal seat, must have been 

 the species at present under consideration. If this conjecture be 

 well-founded, it follows also that the names cynocephalus , sphinx, &c., 

 so often employed by Greek and Roman writers, must have referred 

 to the same animal, at least originally ; but as modern zoologists have 

 applied all these names in a definite sense, I propose to distinguish 

 the new species by the equally appropriate designation which it bore 

 among the ancient Egyptians. 



" Cynocephalus Thoth. — The individual from which this description 

 was taken is an old male of large size, and, like the rest of his con- 

 geners, of a morose intractable disposition. The face is broad and 

 of a dirty livid flesh-colour, lighter along the centre and ridge of the 

 nose, and somewhat browner on the cheeks and muzzle ; the cheek- 

 bones are protuberant, the rostrum truncated, and the extremity of 

 the nose reaching, but not surpassing, the plane of the upper lip and 

 teeth. The hair of the fore- quarters is longer and thicker than on 

 the rest of the body, though it does not form so dense or copious a 

 mane as in C. hamadryas. The colour of the upper and outer parts 

 of the body may be described as dark olive -green, and that of the 

 lower and interior as light yellowish green ; the breast, throat and 

 under part of the chin are silvery grey ; the lower parts of the whis- 

 kers are of the same colour, but they acquire a yellowish green shade 

 as they approach and become intermixed with the hair of the head ; 

 the ears and palms of the hands are naked, and of a dark brown 

 colour ; the callosities very large and flesh-coloured, and the naked 



