16 



COMMON BABOON. 



Simla Sphinx. S. semicaudata, ore <vibrissato, unguibus acuminatiSf 



natibus calvis. Lin. 

 Short-tailed brown Baboon, with callosities behind, and with dull 



flesh-coloured face and pointed nails. 

 Papio. Baboon. Gesn. Quadr. 252. Aldrov. dig. 260. Jonst* 



Quadr. 145. t. 61. f. I. RaiiQuadr. 158. Briss. Quadr. igz. 

 Papion. Buff. 14. t. 13. 14. 

 Mottled Baboon. Pennant Quadr. 1 97. 



This is a species of very considerable size., and 

 when in a sitting posture,, is from three to four 

 feet in height. It is extremely strong and mus- 

 cular in its upper parts, and slender towards the 

 middle; but this is the general shape of all the 

 true Baboons : its colour is an uniform greyish 

 brown, paler beneath; the hairs on the upper 

 parts, if narowly inspected, appear as if mottled ; 

 the face is long, and of a tawny flesh colour; the 

 eyes appear as if sunk into the head or very deeply 

 seated, and are of a hazel colour. The hands and 

 feet have strong, blunt claws; but the thumbs 

 of the hands have rounded nails. The tail is 

 very short. This is certainly the Sphinx of Ges- 

 ner, the synonyms to which are erroneously ap- 

 plied both by Linnaeus and Mr. Pennant. In 

 Gmelins edition of the Systema Naturae they 

 are rectified. This also seems to be the species 

 intended by the Count de Buffon, and figured 

 in his Natural History. It is ferocious in its 

 manners, and its appearance is, at once, gro- 

 tesque and formidable. The region surround- 

 ing the tail, to a considerable distance on each 



