Differs from the true _P. verreauxi_ in having the face and ears black, and
the body otherwise entirely grey, or white, washed more or less with yellow
(sometimes rufous on the limbs); or of an ashy-grey colour on the loins,
neck, and outer aspect of the limbs; the under side bright rufous; chest
and inner sides of the limbs rusty-white, with a fulvous spot at the base
of the tail. Specimens from the forests of the interior have a grey spot on
the back of the neck expanding into a collar, which is absent in those from
the coast. An albino variety comes, so far as is at present known, only
from the wooded belts on the extensive plains between the rivers Manambolo
and Manjaray, on the west coast.
{102}COQUEREL'S SIFAKA. PROPITHECUS COQUERELI.
(_Plate XI._)
Has the face naked and black, but the centre of the nose white; the ears
showing as black points amid the white hair; head and back of neck white,
slightly washed with yellow; outer side of arm and fore-arm dark
maroon-red, the lower border fringed with long white hair; a maroon patch
on the upper and outer surface of the thighs, lighter on the chest and
central part of the belly. Loins dark rusty-grey; hands white; tail
rusty-grey.
DISTRIBUTION.--Verreaux's Sifaka, with its two varieties, is confined to
the small thin woods on the sandy and almost rain-less plains along the
western and southern coasts of Madagascar. The type-form is found, alone,
and unassociated, in the extensive plains of Mesozoic geological
formation--between the southern base of the eastern range of mountains and
the River Tsidsubon, which flows into the sea on the west coast. Von der
Decken's Sifaka inhabits the middle of the west coast, while Coquerel's
Sifaka has its home further to the north. It occupies the area between the
south side of Narendry Bay and the north side of Bembatoka Bay, the
Betsiboka River being its extreme southern limit.
Though first observed by Flacourt, and described by him in 1661, Verreaux's
Sifaka remained practically unknown from that time till re-discovered by M.
Grandidier in 1867.