Chapter VII: The Pig-Tailed Macaque. Macacus Nemestrinus

_Simia nemestrina_, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 35 (1766).

_Le Maimon_, Audeb., Hist. Nat. Singes, Fam. ii., Sect. i., pl. i.
(1797).

_Inuus nemestrinus_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 101 (1812).

{17}_Macacus nemestrinus_, F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm, livr. xlii.
(1820); livr. xliv. (1822); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 29 (1870);
Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 110 (1876); Anderson, Zool. Exped.
Yun-nan, p. 77 (1878; with full synonymy).

CHARACTERS.--MALE.--Of large size, even approaching that of "a good sized Mastiff." (_Anderson._) Body short, and broad-chested; head flattened; muzzle long and Baboon-like; supra-orbital ridges large; limbs long and powerful; tail slender, about one-third the length of the body, pointed, and carried erect; face, ears, and callosities nude; sometimes a short membrane uniting the first phalanges of the fore and middle fingers and the second and third toes.

Fur short, longer over the shoulders; that on the top of the head radiating from a centre, short, erect and abundant; hair below and on the tail less abundant, that on the belly very sparse.

In the skull the protruding facial region is much larger proportionately than the cranial region; the orbits large, and nearly circular.

Face dark flesh-colour; ears and callosities the same; general colour of fur olive, the hairs being at the base grey, ringed higher up with alternate black and yellow bars, the predominance of the one bar over the other producing a brighter olive, even a yellow, or a deep brown colour; top of the head deep brown or brownish-black, extending along the middle of the back, broadening on the rump and basal part of the tail. Sides of the face blackish-grey; under surface of the body and inner side of the limbs greyish white; arms and legs lighter than the back; outer surface of the thighs olive-grey; hands and feet olive-brown.

{18}Length of body, 18½ inches; of tail, 8 inches.

FEMALES.--Similar to the males; the young of both sexes more brightly coloured than the adults. Gestation in the Pig-tailed Macaque lasts, according to Dr. Blanford, seven months and twenty days. A singular variety of a female from the Baram river, in Sarawak, Borneo, is of a dark fulvous above, darker in the mesial line, much paler on the lower surface, and growing nearly white on the middle of the chest.

DISTRIBUTION.--Tenasserim, and chiefly in the southern parts of that province; Southern Burmah, the Malay peninsula, Bangka, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo.

HABITS.--The Pig-tailed Macaque inhabits the thick jungles in the lower country, living in considerable companies, and feeding on fruits, seeds, and insects. "When young, these Monkeys are easily tamed," as Mr. Charles Hose records, "and in some places they are used to climb the cocoa-nut trees to throw down the nuts, the Monkeys having been taught to throw down only the ripe ones." This observation as to its collecting cocoa-nuts was also made many years ago by Sir Stamford Raffles in Sumatra. When old, the males are very savage, and will attack a Dog when provoked.