the ridge and tip of the nose of the most brilliant red. According to
some authors, the face is also marked with whitish stripes, and is
shaded in parts with black, but the colours appear to be variable. On
the forehead there is a crest of hair, and on the chin a yellow beard.
Toutes les parties superieures de leurs cuisses et le grand espace nu
de leurs fesses sont egalement colores du rouge le plus vif, avec un
melange de bleu qui ne manque reellement pas d elegance. (31. Gervais,
Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes, 1854, p. 103. Figures are given of the
skull of the male. Also Desmarest, Mammalogie, p. 70. Geoffroy
St.-Hilaire and F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes, 1824, tom. i.)
When the animal is excited all the naked parts become much more vividly
tinted. Several authors have used the strongest expressions in
describing these resplendent colours, which they compare with those of
the most brilliant birds. Another remarkable peculiarity is that when
the great canine teeth are fully developed, immense protuberances of
bone are formed on each cheek, which are deeply furrowed
longitudinally, and the naked skin over them is brilliantly-coloured,
as just-described. (Fig. 69.) In the adult females and in the young of
both sexes these protuberances are scarcely perceptible; and the naked
parts are much less bright coloured, the face being almost black,
tinged with blue. In the adult female, however, the nose at certain
regular intervals of time becomes tinted with red.
In all the cases hitherto given the male is more strongly or brighter
coloured than the female, and differs from the young of both sexes. But
as with some few birds it is the female which is brighter coloured than
the male, so with the Rhesus monkey (Macacus rhesus), the female has a
large surface of naked skin round the tail, of a brilliant carmine red,
which, as I was assured by the keepers in the Zoological Gardens,
periodically becomes even yet more vivid, and her face also is pale
red. On the other hand, in the adult male and in the young of both
sexes (as I saw in the Gardens), neither the naked skin at the
posterior end of the body, nor the face, shew a trace of red. It
appears, however, from some published accounts, that the male does
occasionally, or during certain seasons, exhibit some traces of the
red. Although he is thus less ornamented than the female, yet in the
larger size of his body, larger canine teeth, more developed whiskers,
more prominent superciliary ridges, he follows the common rule of the
male excelling the female.
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