HYLOBATES HOOLOCK, THE GIBBON 411 



is supposed to describe the soLind, but it is really quite indescribable in 

 writing." 



As in other species of apes, there is a special modification of the larynx 

 which acts as a sort of resounding box and helps to make the sound carry, as 

 it does, long distances. There is also a peculiar arrangement of the upper 

 aperture of the larynx with its small and inadequate-looking epiglottis, 

 which resembles more the arrangement in birds than the leaf-like epiglottis 

 in man. Mr. Candler believes that the hoolocks work their ground systemati- 

 cally in their search for food just as the planter plucks one section of his tea 

 to-day and another section in a different part of the garden to-morrow. For 

 he has found them fdling the air with their cries along a particular stretch 

 of jungle road one day, while the next day not one was to be heard; and then, 

 perhaps a week later, they were back again in the same place as at first. 



Living as they do in fairly large communities, they are constantly on the 

 move, and from what is known of their relatively good intelligence, it seems 

 highly probable that their movements are guided by definite plans, and that 

 they have some sort of governmental system. In Cachar, the tea planters 

 often keep hoolocks for years at a time, permitting them to run about the 

 compound quite freely. Several such tame hoolocks were seen by Mr. Candler 

 and were under his observation for several months at a time. They often 

 would disappear and be away in the tree tops for days together, and at such 

 times nothing tempts them to come down. But at length one of them seems 

 to prefer to be sociable and he will then come and sit on the arm of a chair 

 at breakfast, although he will never reach and snatch things off the table. 

 His manners, in fact, are quite irreproachable, and he keeps himself 

 remarkably clean. At sunset it is his custom to settle down to sleep, jammed 

 tightly into the fork of a tree in a squatting position, usually with his arms 

 over his head. In this semi-domesticated state, the hoolock seldom uses his 

 voice, for he apparently finds no necessity for chattering or callmg to his 



