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Show 1870.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE MAMMALS. 615 9. Catalogue of the Mammals of China (south of the River Yangtsze) and of the Island of Formosa. By ROBERT SWINHOE, F.Z.S. PRIMATES. 1. HYLOBATES, sp. (Gibbon.) A species of black Gibbon is said by tbe Cbinese to exist in tbe country west of Canton. It may be the same as the animal found in Hainan, which I have attempted to identify with the II. pileatus, Gray (see anted, p. 224). The British Museum has a young specimen of Presbytes maurus (Schreber), and an adult Silenus veter (Linn.), both presented by Mr. John Reeves, who brought them with him from China (see List of M a m m . Brit. Mus. 1843). But it is very doubtful indeed whether either of these species occurs within our limits; they were probably procured at Canton, whither merchant ships or junks had brought them. The evidence is not sufficient to justify our admitting them into the Chinese list of mammals. Friends who have travelled through forests in the mountains of the Fokien province have informed me that they have seen troops of monkeys in some places ; but I have never had the good fortune to meet with any of these tree-monkeys. 2. MACACUS SANCTI-JOHANNIS. (St. John's Monkey.) Inuus sancti-johannis, Swinh. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 556. This rock-monkey is found on most of the small islands about Hongkong, and is like a Rhesus with a very short tail. The young specimen taken alive by Commander St. John, R.N., on North Lena Island, did not live to maturity in the Gardens of the Society ; and therefore it was not determined at home whether the species is really a valid one. Dried bodies of this animal split in two are often exhibited, hanging from the ceiling, in druggists' shops, in Canton and Hongkong; and its bones are used for medicinal purposes. Its closest ally is the Pig-tailed Monkey (Macacus nemestrinus, Is. Geoffr.) of Tenasserim ; but it seems to me to be a distinct race. 3. MACACUS CYCLOPIS. (Formosan Rock-monkey.) Macacus cyclopis, Swinh. P. Z. S. 18G2, p. 350, pl. xiii. ; 18G4, p. 380 ; Sclater, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 711 (woodcut). The specimens that were living in the Society's Gardens have died, and are now mounted in the British Museum. These adults are strongly tinged on the upper parts with olive-green, freckled with darker colour. The Rock-monkey of Hainan appears to be the ordinary Macacus erythrceus. (See anted,, p. 226.) 4. NYCTICEBUS TARDIGRADUS (Linn.). (Slow-paced Lemur.) Has been brought alive from Canton, and presented to this Society PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1870, No. XLII. |
