666 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII 



Audebert (Hist. Nat. Singes. 2. Fam., p. 5), 1789, described Simla rhesus, 

 basing it upon Buffon's "Macaque a queue courte " (Hist. Nat. Supp., vii, p. 56, 

 pi. xiii) 1798. Neither BufEon nor Audebert gave any information as to the 

 true provenance of the species but Audebert's fine plate removes all uncertainty, 

 for it cannot for anything but what we have up to now known as rhesus. 



Shaw (Gen. Zool., i. p. 33), 1800, citing " Schreber Suppl." as his authority, 

 appHes the name Simla erythrcea to Buffon's ' Macaque a queue courte' ; but 

 this actually was the first publication of the name erythrcea. Schreber's Taf. 

 viii, c, with the descriptive letter-press, representing this species was not publish- 

 ed until 1841. In the same work (p. 57) Shaw uses Simla fulva for Pennant's 

 Tawny Monkey ; but as we have seen already, the name fulvus originated with 

 Kerr (1792). 



For many years after the pubUcation of the first descriptions, no one seems 

 to have suspected that the ' Macaque a queue courte ' was identical with the 

 Tawny Monkey. Thus Shaw speaking of the latter says " Mr. Pennant seems 

 to be the describer of this animal." Desmarest (Mamm. p. 65), 1820, although 

 he describes if. 7^esM5 accurately ("croupe d'un jaune dore ; extremites grises ") 

 and cites the name Simla erythrcea (from Schreber be it noted), makes no mention 

 of the Tawny Monkey, or of the names mulatta and fulva. He gives the habitat 

 as " Les Indes orientales," les forets du bord Gange." 



J. B. Fisher (Syn. Mamm., p. 29), 1829, seems to have been the first to express 

 doubt as to the distinctness of the Rhesus from the Tawny Monkey. Thus 

 after dealing with " 38 S. rhesus, Audeb. he followed with ""^S. mulatta" '(using 

 in order to express the doubt about the status, an asterisk instead of a 

 numeral) and concludes his diagnosis and synonymy with the observation " Vix 

 a prsecedente diversa." 



Hodgson (J.A.S.B., ix, p. 1212), 1840, described his Macacus (Plthex) oinops, 

 from the Nepal Tarai, giving Macacus nipalensls, cited from his M. S. Catalogue, 

 as a synonym, with the remark " name dropt." An examination of Hodgson's 

 material in the British Museum shows oinops to be a synonym of mulatta. 



Other names referring, more recently, to mulatta ara : — 1870. var, M. (Pithex) 

 petops, Gray Cat. Monk. &c. B. M. p. 31 (where " pelops " is a lapsus calami for 

 oinops). 



1915. Macaca assamensis, Wroughton (nee McClelland) J. B. N. H. S.,xxiii, 

 p. 464 and in subsequent reports and Summary (xxv, p. 554, 555). 



So far we have had to deal with a single species, the problem being to identify 

 its oldest specific name mulatta, from among a number of others, given subse- 

 quently and independently, to the same species. With the erection of a new 

 species, in 1839, by McClelland, under the name assamensis and its prompt con- 

 fusion with the original species mulatta (under the name rhesus) a new problem 

 is created. I.e., to fix the true identities of each of the two species mulatta and 

 assamensis. 



Horsfield(P. Z. S., p. 148), 1839, published a paper in which he included the 

 description by McClelland of a new species under the name assamensis. The 

 description is as follows : — " Bluish grey, with dark brownish on the shoulders ; 

 beneath Ught grey : face flesh-coloured, but interspersed with a few black hairs : 

 length two and a half feet : proportions strong : canine long, and deeply grooved 

 in front ; the last of the cheek teeth in the upper jaw blunt." The type specimen 

 was lodged in the H. E. I. C. Museum, in London, but most unfortunately was 

 subsequently lost. Before this happened however it was seen by Anderson, who 

 recorded (West. Yunn. p. 64) 1879, a very full description of it, as follows : — 

 The type of M. assamensis in the Indian Museum, London, is an adult male. 

 It is a stuffed specimen, but the skull has been removed from the skin and is 

 not in the Museum. This monkey differs from all animals of the common 

 monkey of the plains of India, which have come under my observation, 

 in the anterior half wanting the ashy tint "which is so characteristic of 

 the adults, and in the hinder portion of the body being in no way rufous. The 

 fur, too, is almost completely devoid of annulations, and the hair round the face 



