DISTRIBUTION, HABITS, AND NATIVE NAMES. 253 



serious injury. The mothers seem to act with great 

 tenderness towards their young, taking them down 

 to the water to wash and dry them, etc. Diard affirms 

 that before they are able to run alone the young 

 animals are always carried by the parent of the 

 same sex, the male by the father, the female by the 

 mother. The siamang must fall an easy prey to 

 tigers and panthers {Felis macroseelis). The species 

 is considered by the natives to be slothful and 

 unintelligent ; and Bock adds that, although the 

 Malays are skilled in the care of animals, they are 

 unable to keep these stupid and slothful apes alive 

 in captivity for any length of time.* 



Harlan states that the hulock is found on the 

 Garrau mountains, near Gulpara, in Assam. These 

 apes prefer the adjoining hilly ground to the 

 mountains themselves, which are several hundred 

 feet higher, and exposed to the winds. Their 

 favourite food is a fruit called propul, which is very 

 abundant in this district. A traveller named Owen 

 encountered troops of these animals, from 100 to 

 150 together, near the Nnga and the Abors in the 

 wooded hills to the east of Assam. The noise they 

 made was deafening. On one occasion, when Owen 

 crossed their path, he was threatened by them, and 

 pursued with angry gestures and piercing howls. 

 They had also attacked a native of the district. 

 Snakes of con>«iderable size (Python reticulatus) 

 were torn to pieces by them. 



The wauwau, or, as Martens calls it, the uwa-uwa, 



* Sir Stamford RaflBes saw a perfectly white specimen of this 

 species {Transactions of the Linnaian Society, xiii. 241). 



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