626 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [DcC. 6, 



appeared was ever published ; it was probably distributed to a few- 

 naturalists, but not issued in such a way as to give validity to the 

 title. 



IV. On Presbytis or Semnopithecus thersites. 



A Hauuman Monkev from Ceylon was named Presbytis thersites 

 in MS. by Walter Elliot, and was thus described by Blyih in 

 1847':— 



" Adult male inferior in size to P. e?iteUus .... of a uniform 

 dusky grey colour (devoid of fulvous tinge) on the upper parts, 

 darker on the crown and fore limbs and passing to dull slaty- 

 brown on the wrists and hands ; the hair upon the toes whitish or 

 dull white; no crest upon the vertex (as in P. priamus), nor does 

 the hair there form a sort of transverse ridge (as in the living 

 P. entellus) ; face surrounded with white, narrow over the brows ; 

 the whiskers and beaid more developed than in the other Entelloid 

 species, and very conspicuously white, contrasting much with the 

 crown and body, which are darker than in P. priamus.'" 



Subseciuently, in i851 ^ Blyth observed tliat P. thersites did not 

 exhibit " the radiating centres of hair a little behind the brow seen 

 in various other Entelloid Monkeys-" Kelaart (Prodr. Faun. Zeyl. 

 p. 5) admitted P. thersites as distinct, and was followed by Sir E. 

 Tennent and others. But in his ' Catalogue of the Mammalia in 

 the Museum Asiatic Society," published in 1863, Blyth classed the 

 original type of P. thersites under his P. priamus. This view was 

 adopted by Dr. J. Anderson both in his 'Anatomical and Zoological 

 Besearches,' p. 19, and in his ' Catalogue of Mammalia in the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta,' p. 38. Dr. Anderson's conclusions, like Blyth's, 

 were founded on the original types. I confess to being much 

 puzzled. Dr. Anderson was doubtless imder the impression that the 

 longitudinal crest in P. priamus was artificial and due to the stuiFer. 

 But the common S. Indian and Ceylonese Semnopithecus is un- 

 q\iestionably crested. We have the testimony of several observers 

 who have seen it s\\\e, amongst them Jerdon and Kelaart, and 

 recently Mr. W. Davison has been good enough carefully to observe 

 li\ing individuals and to communicate the result to me. I have 

 also seen diied skins both from S. India and Ceylon, several of 

 which had not been subjected to any manipulation, and iu all the 

 crest was as distinct as possible. Moreover, so far as I have been able 

 to obseive, the peculiar radiation of the hairs on the anterior part 

 of the crown, so conspicuous in S. entellus and S. schistaceus, is 

 always distinctly, if somewhat less, conspicuous in S. priamus. 

 Blyth, however, especially described the type of his Presbytis 

 thersites as wanting both crest and radiation. 



Now there is nothing in the description of P. thersites, so far as I 

 can see, to distinguish it from Semnopithecus cephaloptetus, which 

 has neither ciest nor radiation, and which has " the whiskers and 

 beard more developed than in the other Entelloid species, and very 



1 J. A, S. B. xvi. p. 1271. 



^ J. A. S. B. XX. p. 154. 3 p. 12. 



