668 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL RIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



were obtained with many examples of the true Rhesus. Anderson's description 

 of fcoth the external and the cranial characters is so clear and detailed and is 

 accompanied by such good figures of the skull, that it is not possible to doubt 

 that the Macaque in question is conspecific with assamensis even if subspecifically 

 distinct from the latter. Anderson himself seems to have been fully convinced 

 that these two specimens were specifically distinct from " rhesus," though 

 he refrained from applying any technical name to them. Sclater immediately 

 recognised, in Anderson's description, the form to which he had himself given the 

 name r/jeso-stmfZf.s, which we know from inspection of the type to be a synonym 

 of assamensis. When, however, in 1881, Anderson prepared his Catalogue of 

 the Mammals in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, he completely changed his mind 

 as to the affinities of the Sunderbun Macaque. Apparently he was misled by the 

 erroneous legend to his own figures referred to above ; these figures (representing 

 ' pelops') were, as we have seen, labelled " type of oinops " and since Anderson, 

 like most other writers regarded oinops as a synonym of ''■rhesus,'' he was led 

 to attribute to the latter species a wholly unnatural degree of variation, firstly 

 in the characters of the skull, and secondly, (as a necessary consequence) in those 

 of the pelage. On comparing the skiill, 41e, of the Indian Museum Collection,, 

 from the Sunderbuns, with the figure in Western Yunnan cited, Anderson, of 

 course, found the closest agreement and rightly concluded that both skull and 

 figures represent one and the same species. Unfortiuiately, too, he used the 

 skull of a large species of Macaque, which he had collected at Bhamo, as being 

 representative of assamensis ; this skull belonged to a young individual, wdth m'^ 

 still in germ, and is quite possibly not referable to assamensis at all. Anderson 

 as a result referred all the Sunderbuns specimens to ' rhesns. Anderson's error, 

 in due course, crept into Blanford's Mammalia, for the figures 3 and 4, at page 12' 

 labelled " M. rhesus," are copied from those in Andei-son's Western Yunnan. 

 They therefore do not represent ' rhesus ' but assamensis. 



This concludes the enumeration of the essential references in the synonymy 

 of 31. assamaisis. From the foregoing recital it is apparent that we owe the 

 possibility of identifying McClclland's species almost wholly to Anderson's care- 

 ful description of the now lost type. On the other hand the sj nonymies of mulatta 

 and assamensis have been in a state of inextricable confusion since 1881, and 

 that confusion has to a large extent arisen from a chance blunder. It would be 

 wholly unprofitable to attempt to disentangle all the references to the two species 

 in question which have been published since the date named and we have con- 

 tented ourselves with putting those of the fundamental publications in their 

 true 1 laces, as follovvs : — 



Macaca MtiLATTA, Zimm. The Rhesus. 



1771. " Tawny Monkey," Pennant, Syn. Quadr., p. 120, No. 86 ; India. 



1780. C er CO pithecus mulatta, Zimmermann, Geogr. Gesch. Mensch., ii, p. 195 :: 

 (based on Pennant's " Tawny Monkey '') 



1789. '' Macaque a queue courte ", Bufl'on, Hist. Nat. Supp., vii, p. 56, 

 pi. xiii ; (no localitj). 



1792. Simia (Cercopithecus) fulvus, Kerr, Amin. Kingd. p. 73 ; (based on. 

 Pennant's " Tawny Monkey "). 



1798. Simia rhesus, Audebert, Hist. Nat. Singes. 2ieme Famille. p. 5 ; (based 

 on Buflfon's " Macaque a queue courte "). 



1800. Simia erythroea, Shaw, Gen. Zool, i. p. 33 ; (name cited from Schreber's- 

 Supplement but not published in latter until 1841 ; (based on Buft'on's 

 '^ Macaque a queue courte "). 



1840. Macacus {Pithex) oinops, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. ix, p. 1212 ; (described, 

 from the Nepal Tarai). 



1843. Macacus (Pithex) pelop)s. Gray, (nee Hodgson), List of species of 

 Mammals in B. M. p. 8. (See Gray, Cat. Hodg. Coll., 1846, p. 2) ; 

 end again by lapsus calami in Cat. Monk, etc., B. M., p. 1870. 



1915. Macacus assamensis, Wr&ughton (nee McClelland), J. B. N. H. S., xxiii,, 

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



