DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, AND NATIVE NAMES. 243 



Indians cross the prairie and the Arabs the desert; 

 they go from the top of one tree to the other with- 

 out ever touching the ground. Those tracts of country 

 which stand high and dry, being more frequented by 

 men, and more often traversed by clearings, and 

 subsequently covered with a low-growing jungle, 

 are unsuitable to the motions characteristic of this 

 animal. He is, in these tracts, more exposed to 

 danger, and more frequently constrained to descend 

 upon the ground. It is also probable that in the dis- 

 trict frequented by orangs there is a greater variety 

 of fruits, since the low hills, which stand like islands 

 in the marshy plain, serve as gardens or plantations 

 in which the trees of the hill country flourish. 



Wallace observes that it is strange and interest- 

 ing to watch an orang passing at his ease through 

 the forest. He goes with circumspection- along one 

 of the larger branches in a half-upright position, 

 which is rendered necessary by the great length of 

 his arms and the shortness of his legs. He seems 

 always to choose such trees as have their branches 

 interwoven with those which surround them, and 

 when these are within reach he extends his long 

 arms, seizes the boughs in question with both hands, 

 as if to try their strength, then swings himself care- 

 fully on to the next branch, and goes on as before. 

 The woodcut we subjoin, taken from a photograph 

 by Hermes, in the Berlin Aquarium, may help to 

 explain this ape's mode of climbing * (Fig. 63). 



* This illustration confirms the remai-k already made, that the 

 posterior of this ape somewhat resembles the rump of a bird in 

 structure. 



