ON THE BORNEAN ORANG-OETAN. 17 



NOTE III. 

 SOME REMARKS CONCERNING THE ORANG-OETAN 



Dr. P. A. JENTINK. 



May ]895. 



About at the same time when we received Büttikofer's 

 red-haired specimens of Orang-oetan ^) from Borneo, I 

 procured two dark-colored specimens , a female and a young, 

 with their skeletons, collected near Sintang (Central Borneo). 



As the dark-colored specimens have been looked upon 

 by some naturalists as belonging to a different species, 

 Simia morio , it is evident that 1 now reviewed our rather 

 large material of the Borneau Orang-oetan: the Suma- 

 tran-specimens , being very badly represented in the col- 

 lections, as they seem to be rare to be had in Sumatra, 

 we may leave out of consideration at present. 



The following are the supposed chief differences pointed 

 out by the writers on the subject: a red color in Simia 

 satyrus , a dark one in Simia morio; a nail on the thumb 

 of the hind feet in the first, no nail on that thumb in 

 the latter; besides differences in the bony parts especially 

 of the skull. 



Now it is a fact that the study of a large series clearly 

 shows that none of the named characteristics may be called 



1) Orang-oetang , as some authors call the animal, is wrong as this means 

 literally translated „a debtor*: Orang = man , person , and Oetang or Hoetang = 

 debt. It shoald always be written Orang-oetan, as Oetan means /ore-si! , wood, 

 mlderness. So there is a Babi-oetan, Kambing-oetan , a. s. o. 



Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XVH. 



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