Part 13

HABITS.--"I first met with this species in Upper Burma," Dr. Anderson relates, "in passing through the magnificent defile of the Irawaddy, below Bhamo, where the river is enclosed by high hills, covered with dense forest, for about fifteen miles of its course. It was early morning, and the air was resonant with the loud cries of this Gibbon; large troops were answering each other from the opposite banks, and the hills echoed and re-echoed the sound. The Hoolock is also common on the Kakhyen hills, on the eastern frontier of Yun-nan; and there, too, my attention was called to them at daybreak, when they passed up from their sheltered sleeping-ground in the deep and warm valleys to heights of about 4,000 feet. We, in the middle distance, first caught a faint murmur of voices, but {163}every minute it became more and more distinct, till at last the whole troop rushed past in a storm of sound, vociferating _Whoko! whoko!_ and in a few more minutes their cry was heard far up the mountain-side. Considering that their progress is almost exclusively arboreal, the rapidity with which they make their ascent is wonderful.

"Associated with this arboreal habit of progression, we find that _H. hoolock_ derives its nourishment from leaves, insects, eggs, and birds, the essential features of sylvan life." It also eats the leaves of _Ficus religiosa_, the aquatic Convolvulus (_Ipomoea reptans_), and the brilliant red flowers of the _Canna indica_. It "has a marked partiality," continues the same naturalist, "for Spiders and their webs, which become tangled in its long slim fingers, and Orthopterous insects are regarded by it with special favour, and over which it utters its peculiar cry of satisfaction. Eggs also are to it a _bonne bouche_. It was first in the Calcutta gardens that I become aware of the circumstance that small living birds were devoured by it with a method and eagerness which has left no doubt in my mind that this species, in its natural state, must be a scourge to the feathery tribe."

The Hoolock lives in large flocks as a rule, keeping chiefly to the hill forests. Sometimes, however, an old male may be discovered living by himself.

They move chiefly by means of their long arms, by which they swing themselves for prodigious distances from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. They descend hill-sides at a surprising pace, their descent being accomplished by grasping bamboos or branches that bend beneath their weight, and allow them to drop until they can seize the ends of other bamboos or branches lower on the slope and take another mighty {164}swing downwards. They also ascend with great rapidity, swinging themselves from tree to tree. (_Blanford._)

When walking on the ground the Hoolock rests on its hind feet alone, with the sole flat on the ground and the great-toe widely separated from the other digits. "They walk erect," writes Dr. Borrough, "and when placed on the floor, or in an open field, balance themselves very prettily by raising their hands over their head and slightly bending the arm at the wrist and elbows, and then run tolerably fast, rocking from side to side; and if urged to greater speed they let fall their hands to the ground and assist themselves forward, rather jumping than running, still keeping the body, however, nearly erect."

VI. THE HAINAN GIBBON. HYLOBATES HAINANUS.

_? Hylobates pileatus_, Swinhoe, P. Z. S., 1870, p. 224 (nec Gray).

_Hylobates hainanus_, Thomas, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), ix., p. 145 (1892).

CHARACTERS.--Very closely related to _H. hoolock_, but differs by the entire absence of the white superciliary streak, the animal being jet black all over.

DISTRIBUTION.--The island of Hainan.

HABITS.--This species has not been seen alive in its native haunts by any European naturalist. Consul Swinhoe made many efforts to obtain a living specimen in the island of Hainan, but was unsuccessful. "I never ceased," he says, "to enquire after it. Every one knew that such an animal did exist, and many had seen it; but they all spoke of the great difficulty of keeping it alive. At Taipingsze (Central Hainan) the wonderful stories that were told about it showed that the Yuen was not often seen there. The magistrate of that district assured me, {165}with a serious face, that it had the power of drawing into its body its long arm-bones, and that when it drew in one arm, it pushed out the other to such an extraordinary length, that he believed the two bones united in the body; and he said that the bones of the arm were used for chop-sticks." Mr. Swinhoe, however, published, in 1870, some curious extracts from the Chinese gazetteer of the Kiung-shan district of Hainan, which with little doubt relate to this interesting animal, of which skins have, since he wrote, been received at the British Museum, while a young individual lived for some months in 1893 in the Zoological Gardens of London, where it attracted much attention. The gazetteer says as follows: "Yuen: male black, female white; like a Macaque but larger, with the two fore-arms exceedingly long. Climbs to tree-tops and runs among them backwards and forwards with great agility. If it falls to the ground, it remains there like a log. Its delight is in scaling trees, as it cannot walk on the ground. Those desiring to rear it in confinement should keep it among trees; for the exhalations of the earth affect it with diarrhoea, causing death; a sure remedy for this, however, may be found in a draught made of the syrup of fried Foo-tsze (seeds of _Abrus precatorius_, Linn.)." The gazetteer then continues: "Hainan has also the Rock Yuen. It is small, about the bigness of one's fist. If allowed to drink water, it grows in size. This is also called Black Yuen, and is now likewise difficult to obtain."

Those who had an opportunity of observing the specimen that lived in the Zoological Gardens, will recall its extraordinary acrobatic feats, which were performed with marvellous precision and certainty, either with one or with both hands, and yet with the most careless air. It offered a striking contrast to an Orang-utan, which occupied the adjoining cage. This more {166}robust Ape exhibited in its arms equally perfect powers of climbing; but it moved with the greatest circumspection, deliberation, and composure, exhibiting none of the volatile activity so characteristic of the Gibbons; but moving only one pair of its limbs at a time, and only when the other pair had firm hold of some support.

VII. THE SIAMANG GIBBON. HYLOBATES SYNDACTYLUS.

_Pithecus syndactylus_, Desmar., Mamm., p. 531 (1820).

_Hylobates syndactylus_, F. Cuv., Hist. Nat. Mammif., pl. iv. (1821); Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 9 (1851); Bennett, Wanderings in N. S. Wales, ii., p. 151 (1834); Martin, Mammif. An., p. 420 (1841); Flower, Nat. Hist. Rev., 1863, p. 279 (cum fig.); Giebel, Z. Ges. Nat., p. 186 (1866); Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 22 (1876); Anderson, Zool. Res. Exped. Yun-nan, p. 10 (1878; with full synonymy).

_Simia syndactylus_, Raffl., Tr. Linn. Soc., xiii., p. 241 (1822).

_Siamanga syndactyla_, Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 9 (1870), id., _op. cit._, p. 9 (1870); H. O. Forbes, Nat. Wand. East. Arch., p. 129 (1885).

(_Plate XXXVIII._)

CHARACTERS.--This is the largest species of the genus, measuring more than three feet; it is stouter than _H. hoolock_, and its hair is entirely glossy black, having no white hairs anywhere; the face is black, as is also the distensible skin of the large bare patch on the throat, which overlies its great laryngeal pouch. The second and middle toes are united by a web as far as the last joint. The hair on the arms and fore-arms converges towards the elbow.

The skulls in most of the species of this genus closely resemble each other; that of the Siamang is distinguished by its larger size, and in having the supra-orbital ridges more developed, while the occipital region is more truncated, and there is at the symphysis of the lower jaw a true, though slight, chin.

PLATE XXXVIII.

{167}The frontal lobes of the brain are broad and much flattened, and not full and rounded as in the Orang. The olfactory bulbs project forward, slightly beyond the frontal lobes of the cerebrum; the occipital lobes are much reduced, while the large cerebellum projects distinctly backwards from below the cerebrum--characters in which this very highly organised member of the genus shows a retrogressive development, thus differing from all the other Man-like Apes, in all of which the cerebrum entirely covers both the olfactory lobes in front, and the cerebellum behind.

The large laryngeal sac, communicating by two openings with the larynx, and formed by the extension of the thyro-hyoid membrane, distinguishes this from all the other Gibbons.

DISTRIBUTION.--The Siamang is confined to the island of Sumatra. It has been recorded from Malacca and Tenasserim; but some doubt exists as to the accurate determination of the individuals referred to, no really authentic specimen having yet been obtained out of Sumatra.

HABITS.--The Siamang is gregarious, frequenting the great forest-trees from 200 to 300 feet above the sea up to 3,000 or 4,000 feet.

I made the acquaintance of this species in Southern Sumatra, and during my stay in that island had various opportunities of observing many of them in their homes. It was not uncommon to come suddenly on a colony of them both in the forest and among the tall isolated outliers, when they happened to be covered with fruit. The satiated members of the company {168}might then be often seen hanging by one arm from a bare branch, with perhaps eighty unobstructed feet between them and the ground, making the woods resound with their loud barking howls, uttered apparently for pure love of making a noise. On one occasion a young one, found clinging to its mother, which had been shot, was brought in alive. It had been only stunned by a pellet on the head, and had no bones broken. In a very short time it became a most delightful companion. The following observations in reference to it are taken from the writer's Journal: "Its expression of countenance is most intelligent and often very human; but in captivity it generally wears a sad and dejected aspect, which quite disappears in its excited moods. With what elegance and gentleness it takes with its delicate taper fingers whatever is offered to it! Except for their hairiness, its hands, and, in its youth at all events, its head, seem to me more human than those of any other Ape's. It rarely, however, brings its thumb into opposition with the other fingers, but usually clasps the whole hand, without that digit, on an object. It will never put its lips to a vessel to drink, but invariably lifts the water to its mouth, by dipping in its half-closed hand and then awkwardly licking the drops from its knuckles. It generally sits with its arms crossed over its chest, and its fingers overlaid behind its head. The gentle and caressing way in which it clasps me round the neck with its long arms, laying its head on my chest, and watching my face with its dark brown eyes, uttering a satisfied crooning sound, is most engaging. Although it often inflates its laryngeal sac, it rarely gives utterance to more than a yawn-like noise or suppressed bark; but this dilatation has no reference apparently to its good or bad temper, although, when very eager and {169}impatient for anything, a low pumping bark is uttered. Every evening it makes with me a tour round the village square, with one of its hands on my arm. It is a very curious and ludicrous sight to see it in the erect attitude on its somewhat bandy legs, hurrying along in the most frantic haste, as if to keep its head from outrunning its feet, with its long free arm see-sawing in a most odd way over its head to balance itself, and now and again touching the ground with its finger-tips or its knuckles. That they can leap the great distances from tree to tree ascribed to them is no doubt an accurate observation; but they appear to be sometimes terror-stricken and unable to perform these feats to save their lives. During the felling of the forest near this village, a small colony of Siamangs got isolated on a tree separated from the next clump by some thirty feet or so. They scampered up and down in the crown of the tree howling in the most abject terror at every stroke of the axe; yet they would not venture to leap the intervening space, and even, when the tree was falling, they did not attempt to save themselves by springing to the ground, but perished in its downfall.

"When teething my companion suffered severely--as the human infant so often does--both locally and constitutionally, as indicated by boils and inflamed finger-tips. On lancing and poulticing the latter, and extracting some of its obstructing teeth, the poor creature seemed greatly relieved, and I was delighted to watch it recover, without contracting for me any antipathy for the pain I had inflicted on it, but rather the reverse." At a later date the following extract occurs:--

"During my march to the coast my Siamang accompanied me, occupying, with the most grave demeanour, a seat on one of the packages carried in the rear, near to myself. Here it {170}sheltered its head, to the amusement of all whom we met, under a Chinese umbrella, which I had bought for it to protect it from the midday sun, and for which, after every halt, it held out its hands in the most knowing way, screaming lustily if the porters dared to move on before it had comfortably arranged itself. To my intense regret, a misadventure put an end to a most charming existence, before I could send it to London."

THE ORANG-UTANS. GENUS SIMIA.

_Simia_, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 34 (1766); Erxl., Syst. Régne An., p. 6 (1777; part).

_Pithecus_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 87 (1812); Huxley, Anat. Verteb. An., p. 403.

_Pongo_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 89 (1812).

This genus contains one species, well known as

THE ORANG-UTAN. SIMIA SATYRUS.

_Simia satyrus_, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 34 (1766); Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 4 (1820); Schreb., Säugeth., i., p. 54, pls. 2, 2 B. (1775); Fischer, Syn. Mamm., p. 9 (1829); Owen, Tr. Z. S., i., p. 344, pls. 49, 53-56 (1835); Wallace, Malay Archip., i., p. 62 (1869); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 8 (1870); Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 9 (1876).

_Simia agrias_, Schreb. Säugeth, i., pl. 2, ii. B et ii. C (1775).

_Pongo wurmbii_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 89 (1812); Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 21 (1820).

_Papio wurmbii_, Latr. Singes, i., p. 196.

PLATE XXXIX.

{171} _Pithecus satyrus_, Blumenb., Abbild., Naturh. Geg., fig. xii. (1810); Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 88 (1812); Latr., in Buff. Hist. Nat., xxxv., p. 166, pl. 3; xxxvi., p. 276; Cuv. et Geoffr., Hist. Nat., Mamm., livr. xlii.; Desmar., Mamm., p. 50 (1820); Martin, Mammif. Anim., p. 388 (1841); Owen, Tr. Z. S., iv., p. 82, pl. 29 (1862).

_Simia wurmbii_, Kuhl, Beitr. Zool., p. 21 (1820); Fischer, Syn. Mamm., p. 32 (1829); Owen, Tr. Z. S., ii., p. 165, pls. 30-32 (1841); Brooke, P. Z. S., 1841, p. 55 (Mias Pappan).

_Pithecus wurmbii_, Owen, Tr. Z. S., iv., p. 95, pl. xxxiii. (1862).

_Pongo abelii_, Clarke, Asiat. Res., xvi., 489 (1826); id., Edinb. Phil. Journ., p. 375 (1827).

_Simia abelii_, Fischer, Syn. Mamm., p. 10 (1829; Sumatra).

_Simia morio_, Owen, P. Z. S., 1836, p. 92; id., Tr. Z. S., ii., p. 168, pls. 33, 34 (1838); Brooke, P. Z. S., 1841, p. 55 (Mias Kassar); Wallace, Malay Archip., i., p. 84 (1869); Sclater, P. Z. S., 1891, p. 301; Beddard, Tr. Z. S., xiii., p. 20 (1893; Sumatra and Borneo).

_Pithecus morio_, Martin, Mammif. An., p. 395 (1841).

_Simia gigantica_, Pearson, J. A. S. Beng., x. (2), p. 660 (1841).

_Pithecus bicolor_, Is. Geoffr., Arch. Mus., Paris, ii., p. 526 (1841; Sumatra).

_Pithecus owenii_, Blyth, J. A. S. Beng., xxii., p. 375 (1853).

_Pithecus curtus_, Blyth, _op. cit._, xxiv., p. 525 (1855).

(_Plate XXXIX._)

CHARACTERS.--The Orangs are large and heavy in build, with the head set on a very thick neck, the hair long and directed forward, and the abdomen round and protuberant. The naked face is melancholy. On each side of the face there is, in the {172}full grown male, but not in the female, a large, soft, smooth tumour-like and flexible expansion, which gives a remarkable breadth to the visage. The forehead is nude and purplish in colour; the middle of the face across the nose is sooty-brown. The lips are broad, extremely mobile, and of the colour of the skin--generally of a yellowish brown; and, when eating and drinking, the animal thrusts them far out. The lower jaw retreats at once from the lips, and there is therefore no chin, as so recognised in Man. The ears are more like those of Man, small and flat. The arms are very long, reaching to the ankles in the erect posture, their span being twice the animal's height. The arm is equal in length to the fore-arm; the hands are long and narrow. The fingers are united by a web; the thumb short and often without its terminal joint. The back of the hand is but slightly haired. The hair on the arm is directed downwards and that on the fore-arm upwards, so as to meet at the elbow. The legs are very short and bowed at the ankles; the long and narrow foot, which is articulated obliquely to the leg, is longer than the hand and (except in the Gorilla) is longer than in any other Ape. The great-toe is very short and is often destitute of a nail.

The cranium is very variable in form; the crown is high and pointed, the forehead round and elevated, and the occipital region convex. No two individuals are exactly alike. "The slope of the profile, the projection of the muzzle, together with the size of the cranium, offer differences as decided as those existing between the most strongly marked forms of the Caucasian and African crania in the human species. The orbits vary in width and height; the cranial ridge is either single or double, either much or little developed, independent of age, being sometimes more strongly developed in the less {173}aged animal." (_Wallace._) The supra-orbital ridges are prominent, without being particularly so. The contour of the head is more human in form, however, in youth than in age, when the forehead is large and convex. The canine teeth are very large and tusk-like in the male, but smaller in the female. The upper molars exhibit on their crowns complex rugosities; they have four cusps and an oblique ridge, as in Man, from the front inner, to the hind outer, cusp; the lower molars are five-cusped. The permanent canine teeth sometimes appear before the last permanent molar has come into place.

The thigh-bone (_femur_) has no round ligament binding its articular head into its socket in the pelvis, a disposition which, while it affords greater flexibility and freedom to the hind-limbs in climbing, gives it much less firmness in walking on the ground. The proportionate length of the foot to its limb is greater in this genus than in any other of the _Anthropoidea_. The ankle (_tarsus_) is very short, and the bones (_phalanges_) of the toes form the longest part of the foot. The great-toe is especially short and divergent, its terminal bone being often absent, while the bones of the digits are long and curved. On account of the form of certain bones of the tarsus and their inter-mobility the foot is set obliquely to the leg through the action of one of its muscles (the _tibialis anticus_), so that the sole is pulled to the inside when walking. The outer edge of the foot, with the upper side of the fourth and fifth toes, is therefore applied to the ground in the act of progression, while the spread thumb supports most of the animal's weight. The wrist (_carpus_) contains the complete number of nine bones, as it possesses the _os centrale_ wanting in Man and the Chimpanzees.

The breast-bone in the Orang is composed of ossifications {174}arranged in pairs, instead of being formed of only two bones, as in the other members of the family.

Between the neck and the complex and solid sacral bone there are sixteen vertebrae, and there are twelve pairs of ribs, as in Man. The vertebral column presents slight but distinct indications of the curvature so characteristic of Man, and is nearly as much concave forward in its dorso-lumbar region as in a child.

The Orang-utan has no uvula as in Man and in the Chimpanzees. It possesses enormous air sacs--dilatations of the lateral cavities (ventricles) of the larynx, found in Man--which extend over the throat, the top of the chest, and as far as the arm-pits; these may even unite in the middle line. Its great-toe and thumb lack the long flexor muscles which are present in Man and in the Chimpanzees.

"Of all Apes, the Orang has the brain which is most like that of Man; indeed, it may be said to be like Man's in all respects, save that it is much inferior in size and weight, and that the cerebrum is more symmetrically convoluted and less complicated with secondary and tertiary convolutions." (_Mivart._) The cerebral hemispheres are higher in proportion to their length than in any other _Anthropomorpha_, but they are elongated and depressed, as compared with Man. (_Huxley._)

The colour of the hair of the Orang is a brick- or yellowish-red all over, but in old males it is sometimes darker on the limbs. Its length (twelve to sixteen inches) is greatest, and its character coarsest, on the arms, thighs, and shoulders; the face, ears, and throat are bare, and the skin of a reddish- or yellowish-brown colour; but there is a thin beard on the chin. The back of the hand and fingers are also thickly haired; on {175}the arms the hair grows towards the elbow, as on the fore-arm, both meeting in a point at the elbow.

Between childhood and middle age the skin varies in colour from dark yellowish in the younger individuals to blackish-brown, or black, in the adults (the latter colour largely predominating). Very often the face and neck are almost or quite black, the palms light brown, and the breast and abdomen mulatto-yellow. (_Hornaday._)

In size also the Orang varies greatly; the males being larger than the females. The largest male shot by Wallace measured 4 feet 2 inches. Hornaday, however, shot several exceeding 4 feet 4 inches, his tallest being 4 feet 6 inches, and one male was 3 feet 10½ inches; while his largest female measured 4 feet, and the smallest adult female 3 feet 6 inches. The breadth across the face in males varies from 11½ to 13½ inches, and in females 5½ to 6 inches. The young at birth is large in comparison with the size of the female. A male weighs often from 120 to 160 lbs.

DISTRIBUTION.--The Orang-utan is confined to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, in the East Indian Archipelago. In Sumatra it is far less common than in Borneo, and is found on the lowlands of the eastern coast, in the Palembang Residency, and the Djambi Sultanate. As far as I could ascertain, the natives of the southern portion of Palembang and of the Lampongs were quite ignorant of the animal, except as a name. In Borneo it inhabits the low forest-covered swamplands between the coast and the interior mountains, from the north of the island, round the west, southern, and eastern coasts, as far as the Mahakkam river, if not round the entire coast, as is most likely. In the dry season they retire into the {176}depths of the forest. In the fruit season they come nearer to the coast, while at the height of the rains they frequent the river banks.