46 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



such forests occur, though, occasionally, it strays over to 

 the western side. 



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 occasionally have young with 

 them, though the pregnant females usually separate them- 

 selves, and sometimes remain apart after they have given 

 birth to their offspring. The young Orangs seem to re- 

 main unusually long under their mother's protection, 

 probably in consequence of their slow growth. While 

 climbing, the mother always carries her young against 

 her bosom, the young holding on by his mother's hair.* 

 At what time of life the Orang-Utan becomes capable of 

 propagation, 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 which 

 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 go on growing, though slowly, 

 and that they live to forty or fifty years. The Dyaks tell 

 of old Orangs, which have not only lost all their teeth, 

 but which find it so troublesome to climb, that they main- 

 tain themselves on windfalls and juicy herbage. 



The Orang is sluggish, exhibiting none of that marvel- 



* See Mr. Wallace's account of an infant " Orang-Utan," in the " Annals 

 of Natural History" for 1856. 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. 



