GORILLA ALMOST MAN? 247 
and are from eight to fifteen meters away from the 
neighbouring group, so that the various groups 
seemed closed off from each other by the thick riot 
of plants, like various dwellings. From the size of 
the nests we see that always only two of them belong 
to adult animals; if there are more nests present, these 
are always smaller and therefore belong to the half- 
grown young. From this observation we get the 
noteworthy fact that the gorilla lives in monogamy.” 
I cannot say that my observations corroborate 
this deduction. In one of the bands I saw there were 
three adult males. They might under his theory 
have been heads of three families. But in the other 
band there was but one male and several females. 
The extra females may have been spinster aunts of 
the family, but on the other hand, it might just as 
well have been a case of polygamy. The truth is 
that people know little about the habits of the gorilla. 
Really to know about an animal requires long and 
intimate study. Comparatively few people have 
even shot gorillas. Gorilla skeletons, even, have not 
been common for study like those of other animals. 
The avidity with which the doctors of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in New York seized upon 
the body of John Daniel shows both how rare and how 
important the opportunity to study the gorilla is to 
the science of medicine as well as to that of compara- 
tive anatomy. And even less of study has been given 
the gorilla’s living habits than has been devoted to 
his dead body and bones. Most of the information 
which man can get of and from this nearest relative 
