The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma/Mammalia/Class Mammalia/Subclass Eutheria/Order Primates/Suborder Anthropoidea/Family Cercopithecidæ/Subfamily Cercopithecinæ/Genus Macacus/Macacus sinicus
10. Macacus sinicus. The Bonnet Monkey.
- Simia sinica, Linn. Mantissa, p. 521 (1771).
- Cercocebus radiatus, Geoffr. Ann. du Mus. xix, p. 98 (1812).
- Macacus radiatus, Blyth, Cat. p. 8; Jerdon, Mam. p. 12.
- Macacus sinicus, Anderson, An. Zool. Res. p. 90; id. Cat. p. 59.
Bandar, H.; Makadu, Wánar, Kerda, Mahr.; Manga, Kodaga, Can.; Koti, Tel.; Koranga, Vella manthi, Mal.; Kurangu, Tamul; Mucha, Kúrg; Kodan, Toda.
Fur of moderate length, generally straight and smooth. Hair of the crown lengthened and radiating from the vertex, but not usually extending over the forehead, where the shorter hair is parted, as a rule, down the middle. Tail nearly or quite as long as the head and body. Caudal vertebræ 22.
The skull is long, flattened over the brows, with the orbits much broader than high and nearly vertical. Compared with the skull of M. rhesus, that of M. sinicus is vertically much lower; thus the skull of which the measurements are given below is 3·05 inches in height, the mandible included, whilst a skull of M. rhesus one tenth of an inch shorter is, with its mandible, 3·5 inches high.
Colour. Hair-brown to greyish brown above, pale brown or whitish below. Fur annulated towards the ends in some specimens. Face and ears flesh-coloured.
Dimensions. Head and body of an adult male 19½ inches, tail 22; weight 16 lbs. The tail, however, is generally rather longer in proportion. An adult male skull is 4·8 inches long from occiput, 3·5 from foramen, and 3·5 broad across the zygomatic arches.
Distribution. Southern India, extending on the West Coast to the neighbourhood of Bombay, but on the East not further than the Godavari; it is doubtful indeed if this species is found so far north as that river.
This monkey is replaced in Ceylon by the next, which appears only to differ in colour. In general M. sinicus has shorter and smoother fur, and the radiating hair on the crown is shorter, not extending to the forehead, but a specimen from Travancore in the British Museum has rough hair like M. pileatus devoid of annulation, and an unusually long topknot.
Habits. Very similar to those of other members of the genus. This is the common monkey, tame or wild, of Southern India, found both in wild jungles and in populous towns, where it pillages the shops of the dealers in fruit and grain. Jerdon says "it is the most inquisitive and mischievous of its tribe, and its powers of mimicry are surpassed by none." I do not think that it can excel M. rhesus in inquisitiveness and mischief, but I believe that it is, on the whole, more docile.