Prof. Owen on the Gorilla. 395 



The papau tree {Carica papaya). 



The banana (Musa sapientium), and another species (Musa para^ 

 disiaca) . 



The Amomum Afzelii and Am. yrandifiorum. 



A tree, with a shelled fruit, like a walnut, which the Gorilla 

 breaks open with the blow of a stone. 



A tree, also botanically unknown, with a fruit hke a cherry. 



Such fruits and other rich and nutritious productions of the vege- 

 table kingdom, constitute the staple food of the Gorilla, as they do 

 of the Chimpanzee. The molar teeth, which alone truly indicate 

 the diet of an animal, accord with the statements as to the frugi- 

 vorous character of the Gorilla : but they also sufficiently answer to 

 an omnivorous habit to suggest that the eggs and callow brood of 

 nests discovered in the trees frequented by the Gorilla might not be 

 unacceptable. 



The Gorilla makes a sleeping place like a hammock, connecting 

 the branches of a sheltered and thickly-leaved part of a tree by means 

 of the long tough slender stems of parasitic plants, and lining it with 

 the broad dried fronds of palms, or with long grass. This hammock- 

 like abode may be seen at different heights, from 10 to 40 feet from 

 the ground, but there is never more than one such nest in a tree. 



They avoid the abodes of man, but are most commonly seen in the 

 months of September, October, and November, after the negroes 

 have gathered their outlying rice-crops, and have returned from the 

 " bush" to the village. So observed, they are described to be 

 usually in pairs ; or, if more, the additioji consists of a few young 

 ones, of different ages, and apparently of one family. The Gorilla 

 is not gregarious. The parents may be seen sitting on a branch, 

 resting the back against the tree-trunk — the hair being generally 

 rubbed off the back of the old Gorilla from that habit — perhaps 

 munching fruit, whilst the young Gorillas are at play, leaping and 

 swinging from branch to branch, with hoots or harsh cries of bois- 

 terous mirth. 



If the old male be seen alone, or when in quest of food, he is 

 usually armed with a stout stick, which the negroes aver to be the 

 weapon with which he attacks his chief enemy the elephant. Not 

 that the elephant directly or intentionally injures the Gorilla, but, 

 deriving its subsistence from the same source, the ape regards the 

 great proboscidian as a hostile intruder. When, therefore, he dis- 

 cerns the elephant pulling down and wrenching off the branches of 

 a favourite tree, the Gorilla, stealing along the bough, strikes the 

 sensitive proboscis of the elephant with a violent blow of his club, and 

 drives off the startled giant trumpeting shrilly Avith rage and pain. 



In passing from one detached tree to another, the Gorilla is said 

 to walk semi-erect, with the aid of his club, but with a waddling 

 awkward gait ; when without a stick, he has been seen to walk as a 

 biped, with his hands clasped across the back of his head, instinct- 

 ively so counterpoising its forward projection. If the Gorilla be 

 surprised and approached while on the ground, he drops his stick, 

 betakes himself to all-fours, applying the back part of the bent 



