i THE OKAXG. 47 



On the other hand, it is generally distributed 

 through Borneo, except in the mountains, or 

 where the population is dense. In favourable 

 places, the hunter may, by good fortune, see three 

 or four in a day. 



Except in the pairing time, the old males 

 usually live by themselves. The old females, and 

 the immature males, on the other hand, are often 

 met with in twos and threes; and the former oc- 

 casionally have young with them, though the 

 pregnant females usually separate themselves, and 

 sometimes remain apart after they have given 

 birth to their offspring. The young Orangs seem 

 to remain unusually long under their mother's pro- 

 tection, probably in consequence of their slow 

 growth. While climbing, the mother always car- 

 ries her young against her bosom, the young hold- 

 ing on by his mother's hair.* At what time of 

 life the Orang-Utan becomes capable of propaga- 

 tion, and how long the females go with young, is 

 unknown, but it is probable that they are not adult 

 until they arrive at ten or fifteen years of age. A 

 female w r hich lived for five years at Batavia had not 

 attained one-third the height of the wild females. 

 It is probable that, after reaching adult years, they 



* See Mr. Wallace's account of an infant " Orang- 

 utan," in the Annals of Natural History for 185G. Mr. 

 Wallace provided his interesting charge with an artificial 

 mother of buffalo-skin, but the cheat was too successful. 

 The infant's entire experience led it to associate teats with 

 hair, and feeling the latter, it spent its existence in vain 

 endeavours to discover the former. 



