204 PITHECUS 



mollusca. In summer it comes in numbers during the night, and 

 commits depredations among the fields of sugar cane, as well as among 

 fruit-trees, showing partiality for the small, round, clustering berries 

 of the Longan, Nephelium longaniim. In the caverns among these 

 hills they herd; and in June the females may be frequently seen in 

 retired parts of the hills, with their solitary young ones at their breasts. 



"These animals betray much uneasiness at human approach, 

 disappearing in no time, and skulking in their holes until the intruder 

 has passed. They seem, too, to possess abundance of self complacence 

 and resource ; for I have frequently seen a Monkey seated on a rock 

 by himself, chattering and crying merely for his own amusement and 

 gratification. Whatever Mr. Waterton may say of the tree-loving 

 propensities of Monkeys in general, it is very certain that this species 

 shows a marked preference for bare rocks, covered only with grass 

 and bush ; for if he preferred the forest he might very easily satisfy 

 his desire by retiring a few miles further inland, where he could find 

 it in abundance. But, on the contrary, in the forest, he is only 

 occasionally an intruder, resorting thither when foods fail him on the 

 grassy hills by the sea, where he loves to make his home. 



"Rock-Monkeys are also found, I am told, in the Island of Lintin, 

 near Hong Kong, as well as on a few other islands on the Chinese 

 coast ; but, as I have never seen any of them, I am unable to say 

 whether they are of the same species as the Formosan. The Chinese 

 have a fanciful idea that the tail of a Monkey is a caricature of the 

 Tartar pendant into which they twist their long black hair, and they 

 invariably chop it off any Monkey that comes into their possession. 

 Hence the difficulty of procuring Monkeys in China with perfect 

 tails." 



The female of this monkey on arriving at maturity exhibits the 

 most extraordinary development of the region at the root of the tail, 

 and not only are the callosities and external genital organs swollen 

 but the tail itself at the proximal end is greatly increased. The skins 

 and subcutaneous tissues are enormously extended, and colored purple, 

 deep red, and roseate, and hang in deep folds as if overcharged with 

 blood, the whole affair assuming a hideous aspect. This immense 

 dilatation of the buttocks is provided for by an aberrant adaptation of 

 the ischial bones, and Dr. Murie (1. c.) in his examination of the 

 skeleton found that the "pelvic bones have a most unusual curvature 

 in their long axis, certainly very difTerent from the Rhesus and other 

 Macaques. The ilium anteriorly overrides the sacrum far more than 

 is ordinarily the case. Its upper surface is markedly concave trans- 



