Part 14

HABITS.--The Orang-utan, the "forest-living Man" of the Malays, and the "Mias" of the Bornean natives, lives solitary in the leafy tops of the trees in the forests, except at the pairing season. A female is generally accompanied by one of her progeny, sometimes by two, the one always an infant, and the other a more or less grown but immature individual of a previous birth; for her young--of which she has only one at a birth--do not shift for themselves before they are approaching two years of age. At what age they attain maturity is unknown, but it is probably not before twelve to fifteen years. The infant clings by its arms to its mother when she is climbing, by grasping the hair of her arm-pits, while its legs embrace her sides above the hip. As already observed, the Orangs have none of the marvellous agility of the Gibbons. They are slow and deliberate in their movements; "surprisingly awkward and uncouth," according to Sir James Brooke; but their long and extremely powerful arms and hook-like fingers, which close with an amazing rigidity of grip, and their mobile legs and hand-like feet, enable them to lift and swing their bodies with great precision from branch to branch and tree to tree. "I have frequently seen them," says Hornaday, "swing along beneath the large limbs as a gymnast swings along a tight rope, reaching six feet at a stretch. When passing from one tree to another, the Orang reaches out and gathers in its grasp a number of small branches that he feels sure will sustain his weight, and then swings himself across." On the ground all this is very different. He walks very badly and unsteadily; he uses his arms as crutches, leaning his weight upon them with his fingers as already described, and {177}swings himself forward on them. On the ground the Orang does not move, according to Sir James Brooke, so fast as to preclude a man keeping up with him easily through a clear forest. "The very long arms, which, when he runs, are but little bent, raise the body of the Orang remarkably, so that he assumes much the posture of a very old man bent down by age, and making his way along by the help of a stick." (_Huxley._) The Orang, however, rarely comes to the ground of his own accord.

Mr. Martin gives the following account of a specimen which lived in the Zoological Gardens in London many years ago:--"Its attitudes were as varied as can be imagined, its actions slow and deliberate; excepting, indeed, on one or two occasions when it wished to follow its keeper, who had opened the door of its cage; even then it did not bound from branch to branch like a Monkey, but stretching out its arms, and grasping the branches within its reach, it swung itself onward, and so descended to the floor, along which it hobbled awkwardly and unsteadily. One thing, as respects both the hands and feet of this Orang, could not be overlooked; namely, that their mode of application to the branches, during the arboreal evolutions of the animal, was hook-like; and, from the power of the adductor muscles of the thumb, and flexor muscles of the fingers, tenacious and enduring, rather than tight and fixed. This observation is especially applicable to the feet; in these the shortness of the thumb, though capable in itself of firm and close application, renders it rather a fulcrum, against which the long fingers oppose their stress, than, by folding upon them, an adjunct to them in the act of prehension; and hence, though admirably fitted for the movements of the animal among the trees of the forest, and the kind {178}of hold necessary for freedom and security, the foot of the Orang is, perhaps, less energetic in the grasp than that of the semi-arboreal Chimpanzee, in which the hind-thumb is proportionately longer, and the foot broader, than in the Orang."

The Orang drinks by dipping its fingers into the water, as the Siamang does, and sucking the water off its knuckles, or dropping it into its protruded trough-like lower lip.

"The rude _hut_ which they are stated to build in trees, would be more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility with which they form this nest is curious, and I had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together and seat herself within a minute." (_Sir James Brooke._) "The Orang usually selects," writes Mr. Hornaday, "a small tree, a sapling, in fact, and builds his nest in its top, even though his weight causes it to sway alarmingly. He always builds his nest low down, often within twenty-five feet of the ground, and seldom higher than forty feet. Sometimes it is fully four feet in diameter, but usually not more than three, and quite flat at the top. The branches are merely piled crosswise. I have never been able to ascertain to a certainty, but it is my opinion that an Orang, after building a nest, sleeps in it several nights in succession, unless he is called upon to leave its neighbourhood." In this nest he sleeps during the night or lies spread out on his back during the day, with his hands and feet grasping the nearest branches. The food of the Orang-Utan--whose eating-time is during the middle of the day--consists of leaves and nuts, especially of the durian, the rambutan, and the mangosteen.

The Orang-Utan is of a very shy and uncertain disposition. If captured when full-grown, it is wild and ferocious; when {179}young it is easily trained; but never lives in captivity to attain maturity. When attacked and hard driven by human enemies, and it gets to close quarters with them, it can be a formidable and dangerous antagonist, and has been known to fatally injure its assailants. It will rarely, unprovoked, attack a man. "In one case," as Dr. A. R. Wallace has recorded, "a female Mias on a durian-tree kept up for at least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy spined fruits as large as 32-pounders, which most effectively kept us clear of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and throwing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud, pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief." They fight and defend themselves with their hands, and appear to seize and bite each other's fingers. Many of the specimens shot in the forest of Borneo have lost one or more of their fingers or toes; and present scars on the face (especially on the lips) and bodies from the teeth of their antagonists.

"When wounded he betakes himself to the highest attainable point of the tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike that of a panther. While giving out the high notes, the Orang thrusts out his lips into a funnel shape; but in uttering the low notes he holds his mouth wide open, and at the same time the great throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended." (_Huxley._)

The name given by the Dyaks to the larger species is "Mias Pappan." There is, however, a smaller variety, which they designate "Mias Kassu," of which Dr. Wallace has given an excellent and detailed account. These Mias Kassu have no tumour-like expansions on the sides of the head; the median crest is {180}absent from the skull, for the muscular ridges remain some distance apart; the teeth are very large, especially the canines and the middle upper incisors. The females, which are smaller than the males, are also without the cheek-swellings and the prominent crests of the male, and have smaller canine teeth. This variety, named _Simia morio_ by Sir R. Owen, bears a close similarity to that found in Sumatra. It has been considered a distinct species both by Owen and Wallace, but the variation, as the latter naturalist himself admits, is so very great in just those characters which have been considered to separate "Mias Kassu" from "Mias Pappan," that it is highly probable that both are of the same species, but of different ages. Mr. Beddard found that an Ape exhibited in the Zoological Gardens as an adult example of _S. morio_ was in reality immature.

THE GORILLAS. GENUS GORILLA.

_Troglodytes_, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 87 (1812).

_Gorilla_, Is. Geoffr., C. R., xxxiv., p. 84, note (1852).

This genus, like the preceding, contains but a single species,

THE GORILLA. GORILLA GORILLA.

_Troglodytes gorilla_, Wyman, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. (2), v., p. 419, pls. 1-4 (1847); Winwood-Reade, P. Z. S., 1863, p. 171; Owen, Tr. Z. S., ii., p. 381; v., pp. 1, 243, pls. i.-xiii., and xliii.-xlix; Scl., P. Z. S., 1877, p. 303; Cunningham, Mem. Roy. Irish Ac., p. 1 (1886).

_Gorilla gina_, Is. Geoffr., Arch. Mus., viii., pls. 2-4 (1852).

_Troglodytes savagei_, Owen, P. Z. S., 1848, p. 29.

_Gorilla savagei_, Is. Geoffr., Rev. et. Mag. de Zool., p. 104 (1853); Gray, Cat. Monkeys Brit. Mus., p. 7 (1870).

_Pithecus gorilla_, Blainv., Osteogr., pls. 2, et 5 bis (errore _P. gesilla_).

PLATE XL.

{181} _Satyrus adrotes_, Meyer, Arch. f. Naturg., p. 182 (1856).

_Simia gorilla_, Schl., Mus. Pays-Bas, vii., p. 8 (1876).

_Gorilla mayema_, Alix et Bouv. C. R., lxxxv., p. 58 (1878).

(_Plate XL._)

CHARACTERS.--The face of this massive and most ponderous of all the Apes is naked and black, very wide and elongated. The large head has a ridge of hair along the central crest, and its lower jaw is very wide and far extended backward. The nose is long and high, and broad and flat at its extremity, and is also grooved longitudinally. The muzzle is broad, the mouth wide; the upper lip short, and the lower mobile and protrudable. The eyes are large; the ears naked and black, with the posterior upper angle pointed, and the lower margin produced into a rudimentary pendulous lobule.

The cranial region is comparatively small. The supra-orbital ridges, in which the eye-brows are set, form, from their prominence, a marked feature of the face. They overhang the eyes, causing them to appear very much sunk in the skull. The neck is short, the chest and shoulders wide, thickly haired and suggestive of great strength.

The arms are much longer than the fore-arms, and the feet, which have no in-step, exceed the hands in length, and are much broader than in other genera of the _Simiidæ_. The heel, which in the Orangs is small, is in the Gorilla strongly developed, on which account it can easily stand erect. Its opposable great-toe is large and flattened, and has a wide nail; while the lower joints of the second, third, and fourth toes--which are also short and thick--are united by a web. The arms, on which the hair converges on both sides of the joint towards the elbow, are so long as to reach down to the middle {182}of the leg when the Gorilla stands erect. The thumb is short and thick, and is tipped with a broad nail. The hand is broad, thickly haired on the back, and wrinkled from the wrist to the fingers. The fur of the Gorilla consists of long, thick, straight, or stiffly curved bristles, beneath which is a shorter curled woolly hair, or under-fur.

The skull of the adult male has very protruding jaws, and enormous supra-orbital ridges. The cheek-bones are broad; the temporal muscles meet along the top of the cranium, and have enormous bony crests for their attachment. The same is the case on the back of the head for the powerful neck-muscles. The true form of the skull is obscured by these great ridges and by the extent to which the face protrudes. The brain-case is better shaped internally than appears externally. The orbits have the same form as in Man.

The canine teeth are enormously developed. The upper molars are four-cusped, and have the oblique ridge, already often referred to, from the front inner to the hind outer cusp, the posterior of the three being much larger than the other two, a character distinguishing its jaw from that of Man and the Chimpanzees. The anterior lower molars have five cusps, three on the outer side and two on the inner, as in Man.

The lower jaw has no true chin, and its symphysis is very long and quite different from what is seen in the human symphysis. The opening for the passage of the spinal cord is situated in the posterior third of the base of the skull, and not, as in Man, nearly in the centre.

The vertebræ of the neck, back, and loins number the same--seventeen--as in Man; but there are thirteen parts of ribs instead of twelve. The neck-vertebræ have long spines which contribute to the thickness of the neck. The curvature, characteristic of {183}Man, in the lumbar region of the vertebral column of the young Gorilla, is more developed than in the Chimpanzee, and in both are earlier developed than in Man. (_Symington._)

The wrist (_carpus_) contains but eight bones, as there is no central (_os centrale_) bone, a character in which it agrees with Man and the Chimpanzee, but differs from the Orang.

The volume of the brain in the largest Gorilla rarely exceeds 34½ cubic inches, which is only half the capacity of the human skull. It may be safely said that an average European child, of four years old, has a brain twice as large as that of an adult Gorilla. The weight of a healthy human brain never falls below 31 ounces; that of the largest Gorilla has probably never reached 21. (_Huxley._)

In the brain of the Gorilla the cerebellum can be seen between the deep longitudinal fissure which separates the two halves of the cerebrum. It agrees in this with the Orang and _Anthropopithecus calvus_--the latter exhibiting even a greater divergence of the cerebral lobes.

The young male Gorilla differs much from the adult; its central cranial crest is less prominent than the occipital ridge for the neck muscles.

The female is much smaller than the male, but the cheeks are relatively broader; the cranial crests and ridges are less strongly marked, and the canines shorter and less powerful. Her breasts are long and pointed, not globular.

The height of the adult male Gorilla is over six feet, but the female rarely exceeds four feet six inches.

The general colour of the Gorilla is black or blackish; the whole skin of the face is glossy, set with a few hairs, and deep black; the crown reddish-brown, sometimes of a dark brown, the hairs being dun-coloured at the root, grey in the middle, {184}and dark brown at the tip; on the sides of the face the hair is dark brown or black, grey at the root; on the neck and shoulders the hair is grey at the root, and lighter towards the point. The back, the region of the humerus, and the thighs are brownish, the hair being pale grey at the root, blackish-brown further up, and dark grey at the termination; the fore-arms, the hands, ankles, and feet, dark brown or black; round the posterior is a circle of white hair in some, in others of brownish-yellow. Old individuals become grey or grizzled.

DISTRIBUTION.--Western Equatorial Africa, between the Cameroons and the Congo. This region presents a variety of hill and dale; the uplands are clothed with forest, and the dales are covered with grass and low bush, with abundance of fruit-yielding trees.

HABITS.--This extraordinary animal, round which have gathered so many myths, derived mostly from the inexact and magnified tales of the natives, still further exaggerated by careless or imaginative visitors to the West Coast of Africa, was first brought to the knowledge of science by Dr. Thomas Savage, an American Medical Missionary, in 1847. From that time downwards numerous preserved specimens of the animal have been received in excellent condition, so that its anatomy is very fully known. In 1860 the first living individual reached Europe, and lived for some months in Wombwell's Menagerie. Since that date both English and continental menageries have had specimens in captivity. What we know of the habits of the Gorilla is greatly based on observations made on these captive animals. Abundant statements to the contrary notwithstanding, very few persons, competent to give an intelligent account of their habits, have ever seen the Gorilla alive in its native state. {185}Even now, for our best accounts, we are indebted to Dr. Savage, who obtained most of his information from the natives, whose language and character he understood so thoroughly that he was able to extract from them, by carefully sifting their statements, most accurate information free from exaggeration and conjecture.

The Gorillas live in small companies, or rather families, consisting of their young of different ages, along with the father and mother. Like the Orang, the Gorilla is said to build a sort of platform-nest or shelter to pass the night in, of sticks or twigs laid crosswise on the branch of a strong tree, and within about twenty feet from the ground. The male sits, it is said, on guard below, the female and her family occupying the platform above. "My informants," says Savage, "all agree in the assertion that but one adult male is seen in a band." One gets the mastery by killing or driving out the other males.

Professor Hartmann writes: "The Gorillas roam [during the daytime only] through the tracts of the forest, which surround their temporary sleeping-places, in order to seek for food. In walking they place the back of their closed fingers on the ground, or, more rarely, support themselves on the flat palm, while the flat soles of their feet are also in contact with the ground. Their gait is shuffling; the motion of the body, which is never upright as in Man, but bent forward, is somewhat rolling, or from side to side. The arms being longer than those of the Chimpanzee, it does not stoop so much in walking; like that animal it makes progression by thrusting its arms forward, resting its hands on the ground, and then giving its body a half-jumping, half-swinging motion between them. In this act, it is said not to flex the fingers to rest on its knuckles, like the Chimpanzee, but to extend them, making a fulcrum {186}of the hand. When it assumes the walking posture, to which it is said to be much inclined, it balances its huge body by flexing its arms upward."

The Gorilla has the power of moving the scalp freely forward and backward--as Man in many instances has the power of doing--and, when enraged, of corrugating his brows and erecting the hair over the central bony crest "so as to present an indescribably ferocious aspect." He is capable of emitting a "terrific yell that resounds far and wide through the forest"; and when shot his cry is like that of a human being in sudden and acute distress. The Gorilla is very ferocious and never runs away, as the Chimpanzee does; he advances to attack his enemies, but according to some observers, however, only when molested, rushing forward in a stooping attitude, then rising to his feet to strike. He is also credited with fighting with his teeth, as well as his hands, biting his antagonist, as the Orangs and the Chimpanzees do. He exhibits great intelligence, though less, perhaps, than the Chimpanzee.

The females prove affectionate mothers, bravely protecting their young at the cost of their own lives. "In a recent case," writes Dr. Savage, "the mother, when discovered, remained upon the tree with her offspring, watching intently the movements of the hunter. As he took aim, she motioned with her hand, precisely in the manner of a human being, to have him desist and go away. When the wound has not proved instantly fatal, they have been known to stop the flow of blood by pressing with the hand upon the part, and when this did not succeed to apply leaves and grass."

The food of the Gorilla consists of all sorts of forest and cultivated produce; but the top of the fruiting stem of the oil-palm (_Elais guineensis_), the Papaia (_Carica_), and plantains {187}appear to be the fruits he most appreciates. Its dexterity in captivity in eating from utensils of civilised life is particularly remarkable, as Dr. Falkenstein records of a Gorilla he had alive for a considerable period. "He took up every cup or glass with instinctive care, clasped the vessel with both hands, and set it down again so softly and carefully that I cannot remember his breaking a single article.... He drank by suction, stooping over the vessel without even putting his hands into it or upsetting it, and in the case of smaller vessels he carried them to his mouth.... When he was anxious to obtain anything, no child could have expressed its wishes in a more urgent and caressing manner." When he was refused anything he had recourse to cunning, and looked anxiously to see if he was watched, and it was "impossible not to recognise a deliberate plan and careful calculation." When he had done what he had been forbidden or prevented from doing, "his whole behaviour made it clear that he was conscious of transgressing." The Gorilla is said by Dr. Savage to be very filthy in its habits, but Dr. Falkenstein's observations disagree with this statement. On this point the latter says "his cleanliness was remarkable."

The Gorilla generally adopts a squatting position, with its arms folded across its breast. When asleep he lies stretched out at full length on his back or side, with one arm under his head.

The Gorilla is very delicate, and rarely lives long in captivity, even in his own land.

THE CHIMPANZEES. GENUS ANTHROPOPITHECUS.

_Anthropopithecus_, De Blainville, Leçons Orales (1839).

_Troglodytes_ (nec V.), Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 87 (1812).

{188}This genus contains those Apes which stand highest, next to Man, in the animal kingdom. This proximity, however, refers only to his external conformation and his anatomical structure.

The Chimpanzees approach very closely to the Gorilla in structure. Indeed the Gorilla was at first placed in the same genus as the Chimpanzee, which was much earlier known to science than its larger cousin, although an excellent description of the Gorilla, under the name of Pongo, was brought to this country by Andrew Battell, an English prisoner of the Portuguese in Angola, early in the seventeenth century, and published in "Purchas his Pilgrimage," in 1613, a story which for the first time referred definitely to the Chimpanzee.