148 Lloyd's natural history. 



The Simiidce — the most inteUigent of the animal kingdom — ■ 

 are all diurnal animals, and essentially arboreal. Many of the 

 members of the family have, when walking, a tendency to tread 

 on the outer edge of the foot, turning, therefore, the toe inward 

 on account of the free motion which is possible between the va- 

 rious bones of its ankle, whereas, in the human foot, these bones 

 are more solidly bound together. When climbing, the power of 

 turning in the sole is, as is evident, of the greatest advantage 

 to the Ape. Their food is chiefly vegetable ; a few species 

 exhibit slight carnivorous tendencies. 



*' Of the various genera of the Simiidce, the Gibbons are 

 most remote from Man. The Orangs come nearest in the 

 number of the ribs, the form of the cerebral hemispheres, and 

 certain other characters of the brain and skull ; but they differ 

 from him much more widely in other characters, especially in 

 the limbs, than the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee do. Of the 

 Chimpanzees the Gorilla is more Man-like in the proportions 

 of the leg to the body, and of the foot to the hand ; and like- 

 wise in the size of the heel, the curvature of the spine, and the 

 absolute capacity of the cranium. The true Chimpanzees 

 approach Man most closely in the skull, dentition, and pro- 

 portionate length of the arms." (Huxley.) 



The Simiidce are confined to the Ethiopian and Indian 

 Regions. The Gorillas and Chimpanzees live exclusively in 

 the Tropical Regions of Western and Central Africa; the 

 Gibbons range into all the four provinces of the Indian 

 Region ; while the Orangs are confined to two islands of the 

 Indo-Malayan Sub-region. 



THE GIBBONS. GENUS HYLOBATES. 

 Bylobafes.lXWger, Prodr. Syst. Mamm., p. 67 (181 1). 

 The group of Tree-walkers, as the term Hylohaies signifies, 



