184/.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 1271 



Report of Curator, Zoological Department. 



The following presentations have to be recorded this evening. 



1. H. E. Strickland, Esq. Oxford. A'small collection of English mammalia, 

 birds, and reptiles. 



2. Dr. R. Templeton, of Colombo. Two living Monkeys, one an adult male 

 of the Ceylon Hoonuman, the other a remarkably coloured female of PresJjytis 

 cephalopterus, (Zimmerman). The former I considered identical (p. 732 ante), 

 judging from a not very good skin of a half grown animal examined some time ago, 

 with Pr. priamus of the eastern and western ghats of the peninsula ; but a glance 

 at the living animal suffices to show its distinctness from that and the several other 

 allied species which have been confounded under Pr. entellus. At Mr. Elliot's 

 suggestion, it may be designated — 



Pr. thersites, Elliot, (PL — fig. 3.) Adult male inferior in size to that of Pr. entel- 

 lus (verus) of Bengal, Orissa, and Central India; of an 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 Pr. priamus), nor does the hair 

 there form a sort of transverse ridge (as in the living Pr. entellus) : face surround- 

 ed with white, narrow over the brows, the whiskers and beard more developed 

 than in the other entelloid Indian species, and very conspicuously white, con- 

 trasting much with the crown and body, which are darker than in Pr. priamus 

 (as I remember w 7 as the smaller specimen which I examined formerly). The strong- 

 ly contrasting white beard is indeed the most striking feature of this Ceylon species, 

 as compared with its near congeners. 



The specimen of Pr. cephalopterus is a most gentle creature, as were another 

 that I formerly possessed, and a third which I had opportunities of observing : all 

 three being females. The two last (one of them now set up in the museum) had 

 the body black, slightly grizzled ; croup, tail, and exterior of thighs, albescent, 

 palest on the croup and end of tail : head rufescent-brown, a little tinged with 

 blackish on the sides ; and the whiskers, and short hair on the chin and lips, were 

 dull white, conspicuously contrasting. The specimen now sent by Dr. Templeton 

 is of an uniform dark brown colour, passing to dusky on the hands and feet ; the 

 head rather paler and more rufescent, and the whiskers and hairs of the chin and 

 lips whitish ; the croup, outside of thigh, and tail, are comparatively but slightly 

 paler and albescent. The skin of a male sent by Mr. Jerdon, (procured also in 

 Ceylon, to which island the species seems to be restricted,) is marked as in the 

 others, but is of a much lighter and rufescent brown colour, darker on the hands 

 and feet, and the croup and tail are fulvescent-whitish : its crown, and especially 

 the long hairs of the occiput, are paler than the back. The general colour of this 

 last specimen is, indeed, that which is confined to the head only of black indivi- 

 duals ; while in Dr. Templcton's live specimen, the usual colours are nearly blended 



8 ii 



