_Simia cynomologus_, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 38 (1766); Schreber,
Säugeth, i., p. 91, pl. xiii. (1775).
_Le Macaque_, F. Cuv., Hist. Nat., Mammif., livr. xxx., xxxi. (1819).
_Macacus carbonarius_, F. Cuv., Hist. Nat., Mamm. livr. xxxii. (Oct.,
1825).
_Macacus aureus_, Geoffr. in Belang. Voyage, Zool., p. 58 (1834).
_Macacus philippensis_, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth Primates, p. 29 (1851).
_Inuus (Macacus) palpebrosus_, Wagner in Schreb. Säugeth, Suppl., v., p.
54 (1855).
_Macacus fur_, Slack, Proc. Acad. Sc. Philad., 1867, p. 36, plate.
_Macacus cristatus_, Gray, Cat. Monkeys, Brit. Mus., p. 30 (1870).
_Macacus assamensis_, Gray, _t. c._, p. 31.
_Cercocebus cynomologus_, Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 101 (1876).
_Macacus cynomologus_, Anderson, Zool. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 73 (1878; with
synonymy); Blanford, Faun. Brit. India Mamm., p. 21 (1891).
CHARACTERS.--Body large and massive; head large and broad; legs short and
stout; loins slender; hinder quarters heavy; tail thick at the root, nearly
equalling the body in length; muzzle long; nose not prominent above the
face; eyes large; ears erect, pointed, nearly hairless; frontal ridges not
much overhanging the eyes.
Face pale brown, or livid with a bluish-white patch internal {32}to the
eyes, the eyelids bluish-white; ears, hands, and feet black; callosities
bright or dusky flesh-colour; fur straight; hair of the crown not
elongated, directed backwards, sometimes radiated or slightly crested;
general colour of the upper surface dusky or greyish-brown, varying to
reddish- or golden-brown; under surface of the body and inside of the limbs
brownish-grey to white, the hairs being dark at their roots, and higher up
ringed with yellow and brown or black; scrotum brown, blotched with livid
blue. Length, 22 inches; tail, 19 inches. The females are smaller.
Of this species there are several varieties or races, one in which the
prominent colour is golden-rufous (_M. aureus_, Geoffr.); another (_M.
carbonarius_, F. Cuv.) in which blackish-brown is the prevailing tint of
the face, naked hands, feet, and callosities; a third race has a light
yellow fur (_M. cristatus_, Gray); still another (_M. philippensis_), from
the Philippine Islands, is nearly white.
DISTRIBUTION.--This species is one of the most widely distributed of all
the Macaques. The more typical specimens are found in Burmah and Arakan. In
Siam a pale variety with less orange in the annulations of its hairs
occurs. In the Nicobar Islands (perhaps introduced as Dr. Blanford
suggests), in the Malay Peninsula, and in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombock, and
Timor, the darker (or _M. carbonarius_) variety seems to predominate. From
Borneo--where it ascends to 5,000 feet above the sea--comes the crested,
and perhaps also the golden-rufous coloured race (the true home of the
latter being still unknown). In the Philippine Archipelago--in Mindanao,
Basilan, Luzon, Negros, Samar, and others of the islets--the very light
yellow coloured race is met with.
{33}HABITS.--The Crab-eating Macaque is gregarious, going about in troops
of fifteen to twenty, of both sexes and all ages. They frequent the forests
near the river mouths, and coastal mangrove swamps, where they may be
constantly seen wading about in the mud, picking up Shrimps and Crabs,
which are their favourite food. Tickell says that they swim and dive well.
The females are easily trained, and also the young males; but these, when
old, are apt to become ill-natured and uncertain in disposition. The
mothers are good and tender to their young one, which clings closely with
hands and feet for the first few weeks to the hair of the chest or arm-pits
and abdomen.
Mr. Everett met with this species in the islands of Sirhassen and Bunguran
in the Natuna group, where he says they were abundant. He adds: "They come
down in large parties to the sea-shore, sitting in groups on the larger
boulders, or playing and hunting for prey along the sands, when the tide is
out. In mature animals, the face, hands, and feet are dark brown; the lower
eyelids a paler brown; the upper eyelids and upper halves of the orbits
whitish. In a very young male the bare skin of the face was livid brown,
rather paler on the eyelids, and the hands and feet were dark brown"
(_Oldfield Thomas and Hartert_, Nov. Zool., i., p. 654, 1894).