HYLOBATES 159 



sort of kick-off, he flies through the air, seizing another bough and 

 swinging along it with the unerring accuracy of a finishel trapeze per- 

 former. I fancy he does very little walking in the wild state, for I 

 have never seen a wild Hoolock on the ground. Moreover they are 

 only found in the dense jungle, where the ground is everywhere covered 

 with tangled vegetation. It is puzzling to me why these anthropoids, 

 being so entirely arboreal in habit, should be lacking in such a useful 

 appendage as a tail. The Hoolocks are extremely shy, and it is most 

 difficult to watch them, as they are concealed by leaves high up in 

 the tops of the bamboo clumps or forest trees. You may hear their 

 cries all around you as you ride quickly along a jungle-tract, but 

 the moment you leave the path or look up at them there is a dead 

 silence and scarcely a leaf stirs, until tired of waiting, you move on 

 again. The cry of the Hoolock is a characteristic sound in the Cachar 

 jungle. It is a very pleasing note, rising and falling in intensity, and 

 reminding one somewhat in its rhythm of a pack of beagles giving 

 tongue on a scent which is waxing and waning in strength, as a larger 

 or smaller number of the band join in the chorus. It is heard chiefly 

 in the early morning, then all through the heat of the day there is 

 silence, but towards evening as the sun sinks, you may hear it again. 

 Hooloo! Hooloo! Hooloo! with the accent on the Hoo syllable, 

 is supposed to describe the sound, 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, (I sup- 

 pose), 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 more resembles the 

 arrangement in birds than the leaf-like epiglottis in man. 



"As, day after day I have ridden through the jungle, it has seemed 

 to me that the Hoolocks worked their ground systematically in their 

 search for food, just as the planter plucks one section of his tea to- 

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

 For I have found them filling the air with their cries along a particular 

 stretch of jungle-road one day, whilst the next day not one was to be 

 heard ; then perhaps, a week later they are back again in the same place. 

 Living as they do in communities, they are constantly on the move, 

 and from what we know of their great intelligence, it seems to me 

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

 and that very probably they have some sort of government system. 



"In Cachar, where these notes are written, the tea-planters often 

 keep Hoolocks for years, allowing them to run loose about the com- 



