8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



The gray human temple spot (pi. 5, fig. i) is a common feature 

 of primate color patterning. It is particularly well developed in the 

 gelada baboon (pi. 5, fig. 2). 



As they increase in size the temple spots often extend backward 

 along the sides of the head until they cover the entire area that re- 

 mains haired in normal baldness. The pattern thus formed — dark cap 

 contrasted with grizzled sides and back of head (pi. 5, figs. 3, 4) — 

 is a common one among non-human primates. It is particularly well 

 developed in the West African gorilla (pi. 5, fig. 5. The specimen 

 represented by this photograph is an unmounted skin with the head 

 not filled out to natural form). Occasionally this pattern may be 

 seen reversed. The grizzling is then confined to the area of the normal 

 bald spot, while the hairs at the sides and back of the head remain 

 dark. When this happens the color scheme of the cacajao monkey 

 (pi. 3, fig. 10) is reproduced. 



White locks situated on or near the forehead line (pi. 5, figs. 6, 7) 

 are not uncommon, but on other parts of the head they are rare. They 

 may be present without other signs of the graying process (as in fig. 6) 

 or they may appear as a step in that process (as in fig. 7). In either 

 event they are usually confined to some part of an area where pattern- 

 ing occurs in nonhuman primates (pi. 4, fig. 6, pi. 5, fig. 8^). 



PATTERNING ON OTHER PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY 



The process of turning gray usually begins on the head and extends 

 gradually downward over the body. As it advances it often passes 

 through a stage, particularly well represented in Figure 9 of Plate 5, 

 in which the gray area ends abruptly at the middle of the chest, leav- 

 ing the hair of the arms and lower part of the body dark. The general 

 lines of a pattern found in an African colobus monkey, Colobus poly- 

 comos, and in an Asiatic macaque, Macaca albibarbata (pi. 5, fig. 10), 

 are then closely followed. 



Turning to other parts of the human body we find that the same 

 correspondence with widely distributed primate tendencies holds good. 



The pubic region is an area of pattern formation in widely sepa- 

 rated nonhuman primates. Young chimpanzees have a white pubic 

 patch contrasted with the black surrounding hair. It disappears by 

 becoming black before the animals reach full maturity. Some species 

 of gibbon have no pubic mark whatever. Others display a black spot 



* The spider monkey represented in fig. 8 of pi. 5 has a band of white extend- 

 ing along the entire frontal border of the true head-hair. The forehead-hair 

 is also white, but it differs from the head-hair in quality and in direction of 

 growth. Before photographing this skin I darkened the forehead-hair with ink. 



