58 MAMMALIA. 



that the Ourang-Outang inhabits the most eastern countries 

 only, such as Malabar, Cochin China, and particularly the great 

 island of Borneo, whence he has been occasionally brought to 

 Europe by the way of Java. When young, and such as he ap- 

 pears to us in his captivity, he is a mild and gentle animal, 

 easily rendered tame and affectionate, which is enabled by his 

 conformation to imitate many of our actions, but whose intel- 

 ligence does not appear to be as great as is reported, not much 

 surpassing even that of the Dog. Camper discovered, and has 

 well described two membranous sacs in this animal which com- 

 municate with the glottis, that produce a hoarseness of his voice 

 he was mistaken, however, in imagining that the nails are 

 always wanting on his hinder thumbs. 



There is a monkey in Borneo, hitherto known only by his 

 skeleton, called the Pongo,{^\) which so closely resembles the 

 Ourang-Outang in the proportions of all his parts, and by the ar- 

 rangement of the foramina, and sutures of the head, that, not- 

 withstanding the great prominence of the muzzle, the small- 

 ness of the cranium, and the height of the branches of the lower 

 jaw, we are tempted to consider him an adult if not of the 

 species of the Ourang-Outang, at least of one very nearly allied 

 to it. The length of the arms, that of the apophyses of the 

 cervical vertebrae, and the tuberosity of his calcaneum, may 

 enable him to assume the vertical position, and walk upon two 

 feet. He is the largest monkey known, and in size is nearly 

 equal to Man. 



IMr J. Harwood, in the Trans. Lin. Soc. XV, p. 471, de- 

 scribes the feet of an ourang, fifteen English inches in length. 

 This announces a very great stature in the animal to which 

 they belonged, and would have led him to the belief that the 

 Pongo is the adult Ourang-Outang, were it not that the skele- 

 ton of the Pongo in the College of Surgeons, at I^ondon, has 

 one lumbar vertebra more than those of the Ourangs. This, 



(1) Audeb. Singes, pi. anat. 2. This name of Pongo, a corruption of Boggo, 

 which is given in Africa to the Chimpanse, or to the Mandrill, was applied by 

 Buffon to a pretended large species of Ourang-Outang the mere imaginary pro- 

 duct of his combinations. Wurmb, a naturalist of Batavia, has transferred it to 

 this animal, which he was the first to describe, and of which Buffon never had 

 any idea. See Mem. of the Soc. of Batavia, vol. 11, p. 245. The thought, that It 

 might be an adult Ourang, struck me on examlnmg the head of an ordinary 

 Ourang, whose miizzle projected much more than those of the very young speci- 

 mens hitherto described. I described it in a memoir read before the Acad- des 

 Sciencee in 1818. Tileslus and Rudolph! appear also to have had it. See the 

 Mem. of the Acad, of Berhn, 1824, p. 131. 



