944 CAl'T. T. HUTTON ON THE GEOGRArHICAL, [Nov. 28, 



laid backwards, does not reach the base of the caudal. The distance 

 between the dorsal and caudal fin is much greater than the least 

 depth of the tail. 



Coloration uniform brownish ; back and sides finely black-dotted. 

 Operculum with a golden tint. 



Total length 7 inches. 



Hab. Creeks in South Australia. 



9. Ou tlie Geograpliical K-auge of Semnojjithecus entellus. 

 By Capt. T. Hutton, C.M.Z.S. 



The particular species of Monkey to which the name of Hoo- 

 noomauu now more especially and properly applies is known to 

 naturalists as the Semnopithecus entellus ; and notwithstanding the 

 frequent and dogmatic assertions of travellers as to its occurrence 

 throughout all India, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya, the 

 species is entirely and absolutely restricted within narrow limits to 

 the hot tropical plains of the south-western Gangetic provinces, 

 where, from the degree of protection which its imputed " odour of 

 sanctity" is so well calculated to cast around it, as well as from the 

 numbers in which it frequently occurs, it becomes a perfect nuisance 

 in those parts of the country where the superstitious veneration for 

 it most strongly prevails.^ In many places, where the natives from 

 religious motives are in the habit of feeding and protecting them, 

 the roofs of the village huts are at certain hours of the day literally 

 crowded with them, and the depredations committed in grain-shops, 

 gardens, and among the neighbouring crops are most destructive 

 and iinsaintlike. 



Mr. Blyth speaks of the frequent occurrence of troops of these 

 Monkeys around Kishnagur in Lower Bengal, and observes that he 

 never met with them eastward of the Hooghlee ; this is a slight error, 

 as Kishnagur is itself to the eastward of that river. If he meant to 

 say that they were not in their natural habitat to the eastward of 

 the Hooghlee he would be correct, as the animal was purposely 

 introduced into Kishnagur by devotees. The fact is that Mr. Blyth 

 confounds the Hooghlee with the Jellinghee river, the former ori- 

 ginating only in the junction of the Bhagiruttee and Jellinghee a 

 little below Kishnagur, and thence proceeding to Calcutta and the 

 sea. Kishnagur itself is situated on the left bank of the Jellinghee, 

 which bounds the eastern side of the island of Cossimbazaar or 

 Moorshedabad ; and the Bhagiruttee bounds the western side, — both 

 these Gangetic offshoots forming a junction to the south of the 

 island a little below Kishnagur, and about sixty miles or so above 

 Calcutta. The Entellus having been purposely introduced into that 

 locality some years ago proves that the animal is not a native of that 

 side of the river, but is wholly confined by nature to the right banks 

 of the Ganges and Hooghlee. Mr. Blyth likewise remarks with 

 reference to the Entellus ; — " I know of one locality where the whole 



