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Show 172 MR. R. I. rOCOCK OX A 1IAINAX GIBBOX. [May 16, comparatively slight structural modification would convert such an organ into a closed tube for the passage of the urine-a fact perhaps of some significance in connection with the low position of the Gibbons in the Anthropomorphous series, seeing that in the Lemurs, the lowest of existing Primates, the clitoris is traversed by the urethral canal. Change of Colour. I am informed by Mr. de St. Croix that the young of both sexes of this species are alleged by the natives to be lighter-coloured at birth and for a short time afterwards than their parents. His animal, when first purchased, was a dark smoky grey, which, however, soon turned to black; and perfectly black she remained all the years she was in his possession. But within a few weeks of being brought to the Gardens she began to go grey, Mr. de St. Croix himself noticing a decided alteration in this respect when he visited her on March 8th, about six weeks after her arrival in London. During the spring and early summer the greyness progressed rapidly, but not quite uniformly all over the body. In midsummer, according to my notes, the head was black with a grey band extending on each side from the eyebrow over the ear; the beard was whitish and the nape of the neck blackish ; the greater part of the body was blackish grey, with a considerable quantity of blacker hair on the sides of the belly close to the thigh and a broad triangular black patch, narrower posteriorly, extending from the collar-bones on to the fore part of the belly and bordered on each side by a grey area paler in tone than the back; the thigh and upper arm were paler than the distal portion of the limbs. By this time she was not recognisable as the animal that reached the Gardens in January. Still the greyness continued to spread, the black pigment died out from the areas mentioned above, lasting longest upon the chest and the crown of the head. At this period she presented a decided similarity to the left-hand figure 011 the plate depicting H. pileatus Gray (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 136, pi. xxi.), although the black pectoral area was smaller and the patch on the crown less sharply defined at the edges. In the early autumn she was a stone or silvery grey practically all over except for a black median band, fading away laterally and posteriorly, down the middle line of the head. At the present time (May 1905) she is brownish grey or silvery grey in colour, the tint varying according to the light. The black cap is still retained as a patch broadest and blackest between the ears, fading into brown upon the forehead and narrowing towards the nape of the neck. The hair on the chest has grown pale and thin, showing the blackish-grey tint of the underlying skin as a dark triangular shield. On the penultimate phalanges of the hands and feet the blackness of the hairs persists. The long hairs on the brows are also black. |