_Semnopithecus roxellanæ_, A. Milne-Edwards, C. R., lxx., p. 341 (1870);
Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 65 (1876).
_Rhinopithecus roxellanæ_, id., Rech., Mammif., p. 233, pls. xxxvi.,
xxxvii. (1868-1874); Blyth, Mamm. Burm., p. 11 (1875).
_Semnopithecus_ (_Nasalis_) _roxellanæ_, Anders., Zool. Res. Exped.
Yun-nan, p. 43 (1878).
CHARACTERS.--Face naked, nose depressed in the middle, the tip elevated and
terminating in a singular leaf-like point; sides of the face and brows
clothed with a thick ruff, which extends in a line across the face towards
the nose; face green; the frontal region, sides of the face, auricular
region, sides of the neck and shoulder, chin, chest, inner side of the
fore-limbs, and upper aspect of the feet, yellow; top of head greyish-black
washed with rufous; from the nape (with the outer aspect of the fore-limb)
to the lower back silvery-grey, darker towards the neck, brightening
towards the tail and front of the thighs, where it is washed with bright
yellowish-grey; callosities and outer aspect of the thighs, bright yellow;
under surface of the body grey washed with yellow; tail grey at the base,
tufted at the tip and yellow; thumb very short. Length of body, 26 inches;
of tail, 21 inches.
FEMALE.--Similar to the male, but duller.
YOUNG.--Also paler, with more yellowish-grey round the ears, but the top of
the head not black. (_Anderson._)
{140}DISTRIBUTION.--The present species inhabits the forests of the high
mountains which clothe the western region of the Principality of Moupin, in
North-western China, to Kokonoor and Kansu Kinsu.
HABITS.--This very remarkable animal, whose discovery we owe to the
researches of that renowned traveller, the Abbé David, lives in large
troops on the highest trees of the forest, in regions where the snow lies
throughout the greater part of the year. It feeds on fruits, leaves, and
the young shoots of the forest-trees, and of the wild bamboo. It has been
placed by some systematists in a separate genus, _Rhinopithecus_, along
with _Nasalis larvatus_, from Borneo, on account of the extraordinary form
of its nose and of the length of the arm being greater than the fore-arm;
but in its structural characters it is very closely related to
_Semnopithecus_.