DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, AND NATIVE NAMES. 2ol 



forest.* According to von Koppenfels, they frequent 

 the same sleeping-place not more than three or 

 four times consecutively, and usually spend the 

 night wherever they happen to be when night 

 comes on. Koppenfels differs from other narrators 

 in the assertion that the gorilla constructs a bed for his 

 night lair upon the trees. He chooses for this pur- 

 pose a full-grown tree, not more than 0'30 m. in thick- 

 ness, breaks and bends the branches together at a 

 height of from five to six metres from the ground, and 

 covers them with the twigs he has torn off, or with 

 the leaf-moss, which grows scantily in this part of 

 Africa. The male animal spends the night crouching 

 at the foot of the tree, against which he places his 

 back, and thus protects the female and their young, 

 which are in the nest above, from the nocturnal 

 attacks of leopards, which are always ready to 

 devour all species of apes. 



In the daytime the gorillas roam through the 

 tracts of forest which surround their temporary 

 sleeping-places, in order to seek for food. In walk- 

 ing they place the backs of their closed fingers on 

 the ground, or more rarely support themselves on 

 the flat palm, while the flat soles of the feet are also 

 in contact with the ground. The toes are generally 

 extended, and a little separated from each other, 

 but occasionally they are doubled under. Their 



* The account given by H. von Koppenfels, whose early death 

 we must all deplore, is taken from his article in the Gartenkmbe 

 (1877, No. 25) ; from his correspondence with his family, which 

 I have been allowed to see ; and from a long paper addressed to 

 Professor Bastian from Adalinalouga, dated March 26, 1874. 



