The
"bonneted Macaque" is common in the south and west; it is replaced on
the neighbouring coast of the Peninsula of India by the Toque, _M.
radiatus_, which closely resembles it in size, habit, and form, and
in the peculiar appearance occasioned by the hairs radiating from the
crown of the head. A spectacled monkey is _said_ to inhabit the
low country near to Bintenne; but I have never seen one brought
thence. A paper by Dr. TEMPLETON, in the _Mag. Nat. Hist._ n. s.
xiv. p. 361, contains some interesting facts relative to the Rilawa of
Ceylon.]
KNOX, in his captivating account of the island, gives an accurate
description of both; the Rilawas, with "no beards, white faces, and long
hair on the top of their heads, which parteth and hangeth down like a
man's, and which do a deal of mischief to the corn, and are so impudent
that they will come into their gardens and eat such fruit as grows
there. And the Wanderoos, some as large as our English spaniel dogs, of
a darkish grey colour, and black faces with great white beards round
from ear to ear, which makes them show just like old men. This sort does
but little mischief, keeping in the woods, eating only leaves and buds
of trees, but when they are catched they will eat anything."[1]
[Footnote 1: KNOX, _Historical Relation of Ceylon, an Island in the
East Indies_.--P. i. ch. vi. p. 25. Fol. Lond. 1681. See an account
of his captivity in SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, etc., Vol.
II. p. 66 n.]
KNOX, whose experience during his long captivity was confined almost
exclusively to the hill country around Kandy, spoke in all probability
of one large and comparatively powerful species, _Presbytes ursinus_,
which inhabits the lofty forests, and which, as well as another of the
same group, _P. Thersites_, was, till recently, unknown to European
naturalists. The Singhalese word _Ouandura_ has a generic sense, and
being in every respect the equivalent fur our own term of "monkey" it
necessarily comprehends the low country species, as well as those which
inhabit other parts of the island. In point of fact, there are no less
than four animals in the island, each of which is entitled to the name
of "wanderoo."[1] Each separate species has appropriated to itself a
different district of the wooded country, and seldom encroaches on the
domain of its neighbours.
[Footnote 1: Down to a very late period, a large and somewhat
repulsive-looking monkey, common to the Malabar coast, the
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