752 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion lose portions of their tails or toes, but it also occurs among orang- 

 outangs in their wild state. The middle toe is the longest, and the 

 fourth toe is the shortest. Layers of fat may be observed on the under 

 side of all but the great-toe, where they rarely occur. The backs of 

 the hands and feet are covered with very ribbed and wrinkled skin, 

 and on the hands there are callosities. 



This animal, of a quieter and more phlegmatic disposition than the 

 gorilla and chimpanzee, has a very strange appearance, with its pro- 

 jecting head and short neck ; its face widening in the middle and 

 tapering toward the forehead and chin ; its tun-shaped trunk, long, 

 thin extremities, and shaggy coat. It differs widely from the chim- 

 panzee and gorilla in these particulars. In the young male the com- 

 pression of the forehead is less marked than in aged animals, and the 

 bony crests which conduce to raise the coronal arch in its upper and 

 hinder part are also absent. The supraorbital arches are less strongly 

 developed, the jaws are less prominent, and the layers of fat upon the 

 cheeks are absent. The head is more detached from the neck, the 

 structure of the whole body is slenderer, the expression of the counte- 

 nance is milder. A small, conical nail, blunted at the end, may gen- 

 erally be observed on the great-toe. 



In the adult female, as I have pointed out elsewhere, the physical 

 characteristics of the young male are repeated in an exaggerated form. 

 The skull, displaying only very small bony crests, is indeed high, but 

 more rounded than in the aged male ; the face is prominent, but the 

 head is more detached from the neck than in the latter case. On 

 account of the greater width of the pelvis, the body is still more tun- 

 shaped than in the aged male. When giving suck, the breasts are 

 distended in the form of a half cone, but when this condition ceases 

 they fall together and only present two short, wrinkled, slightly promi- 

 nent folds of skin ; the small, horny nipples are almost cylindrical ; 

 and the areola, of which the traces are scanty at all times, altogether 

 disappears. The throat-pouch is less strongly developed than in the 

 aged male, but the limbs are as fully developed. The head of the 

 young female is still more rounded, with a more flattened though still 

 projecting face, and the limbs are slenderer, and thus still more out of 

 proportion with the thick trunk than is the case with a young male. 



The orang-outang's skin is of a grayish-blue color, sometimes mixed 

 with brown, but the grayish-blue shade is predominant. A yellowish 

 or brownish gray is less common. Round the eyes, nostrils, upper 

 lips, and chin, there is often a ring of a dirty, yellowish-brown color, 

 forming a strange contrast with the general bluish-gray tone of the 

 face. The arms, legs, hands, and feet are black or grayish-black, more 

 rarely brown or reddish-brown. 



The hairy coat of the orang-outang consists of long, curved, waving 

 bristles, and some scanty downy hairs. On the back of the head, on 

 the shoulders, back, and hips, I have measured hairs from two hundred 



