January 23. 1844. 



William Horton Lloyd, Esq., in the Chair. 



A communication \vas read frora Major Harris, lately on an em- 

 bassy to Shoa, in Southern Abyssinia, containing his observations 

 on the natūrai history and zoology of that country, accompanied 

 with an extended list of its Mammalia, Avės, Reptilia, &c., -vvith their 

 native names. 



Dr. Templeton's memoir on some varieties of the Monkeys of 

 Ceylon was then read : — 



" The Cercopithecus pileaius (' Menageries,' M. sinicus, F. Cuv.) 

 is the common small monkey of every part of the western and south- 

 ern maritime provinces of Ceylon. It is readily distinguished from 

 the Toque by the light tan hue of the face and the black margin of 

 the lower lip. The malė is more robust and not so playful as the 

 female ; both are easily tamed, and retain their gentleness and farai- 

 liarity in old age, The figure in the ' Histoire des Mammiferes ' 

 represents the animal much too stout, the tail rather short, the di- 

 stinction of colour of the back and abdomen marked by a too well- 

 defined line, and the hairs on the crown of the head not sufficiently 

 copious, long or divergent. lu other respects the figure is good. In 

 that excellentlittle work the ' Menageries,' page 308, are these words : 

 ' with the long hair of the head standing erect, likę an upright crest.' 

 This, applied to our animal, I have difficulty in comprehending ; the 

 hair on the head of the adult malęs and females being flattened down, 

 strikingly divergent from a small centrai part, and in some instances 

 slightly separated down the middle ; but anything likę an upright 

 crest I have never yet seen. There are some slight distinctions of 

 sex and age which it may be proper to note, remarking at the šame 

 time that the pecuharities, though obvious enough in the majority. 

 are by no means constant, but shade into each other, especially in 

 the domesticated animals. The adult malė, as I have above remarked. 

 has the hair of the cro\vn flattened down, eąually divergent in all 

 directions, of the šame colour and appearance as that of the back ; 

 that is, rather long, mouse-coloured close to the skin, yellowish 

 brown, or in strong sunlight golden ^ith a shade of chestnut, at the 

 tips. The face is light tan-coloured, ivith ecattered black hairs: 

 along the eyebrows a few stiflF black hairs projecting straightfor- 

 wards, and above these, and beneath the crowning tuft, a dark band 

 of hair ; the space about the ears -vvhitish, ears fuliginous ; lower lip 

 with a broad black margin; conjunctiva black. Iris reddish brovvn, 

 pupil black. Anterior surface of the trunk and inner side of the 

 limbs pale. The hands are strong, fuliginous ; the dorsum thinly 



