Chapter XXIX: Stairs' Guenon. Cercopithecus Stairsi

_Cercopithecus stairsi_, Sclater, P. Z. S., 1892, p. 580, pl. xl.; 1893,
pp. 252, 443, and 612.

CHARACTERS.--ADULT MALE.--Face black, except a ring round the eyes, which is flesh-coloured; ridge of the nose and a band above the eyes from ear to ear black, surmounted by another band of long erect yellowish-white hairs; ears naked; whiskers bushy, greyish-white, washed with greenish-yellow; on each side of the forehead a bright chestnut band is carried over the head behind the ears; back of the head, nape, and anterior part of the back grey, variegated by black lines and washed with yellowish; back of the shoulders dark grey; back, especially the lower part, yellowish-grey, with a rufous patch on the rump above the tail; external surface of the arms blackish-grey; hands black; outside of the legs grey; feet not so black as the hands; anal region, and about three inches of the base of the tail rufous-yellow; scrotum dark indigo blue; throat, under surface of body, and inner side of limbs milky white; the whole of the hair of the upper parts minutely grizzled. Length of body, 18 inches; tail injured. (_Sclater._)

YOUNG FEMALE.--Differs from the male in being lighter in colour; back below the nape, sides, thighs, legs, and upper {74}surface of the basal third of the tail ochre yellow, washed with rufous; shoulders and fore-limbs grey; hands and feet black, under side of the body and inner side of the limbs and the throat (where the hairs are long) milky white; terminal two-thirds of the tail blackish-grey, darker at the tip.

The chestnut auricular spots in both sexes of this species distinguish it from all others.

DISTRIBUTION.--The Zambesi Delta. The typical specimen (which is the female above described) was given, as Dr. Sclater tells us in his original account of this beautiful species, by Mr. Hillier, at Chindi, to Dr. Moloney (of Lieut. Stairs' Expedition). The latter brought it home alive, and presented it in 1892 to the Zoological Society's Gardens, where it lived till the beginning of 1893. The type specimen is now in the British Museum. A second specimen, the adult male (described above) was presented to the Society in June, 1893, by Mr. F. Hintz, whose brother had brought it from Mozambique, and had had it in captivity for eight years.

HABITS.--Unknown.