SOME CHARACTERS OF THE ORANG 



bability does the gorilla. It is possible, therefore, that 

 we may believe in at any rate racial varieties of these 

 apes. The gorilla has got its name under false pre- 

 tences. It is certainly not the ape seen to pick up and 

 hurl stones by the Carthaginian Hanno, author of the 

 Periplous. That creature was probably a baboon, 

 which does live in herds and can throw stones. 



THE ORANG UTAN 



The orang, whose scientific name is Simia salyrus, 

 and whose vernacular Malayan name generally used by 

 us signifies Man of the Woods, is, like the gibbon, an 

 Asiatic kind of anthropoid ape. It is Bornean and 

 Sumatran in range ; and in those great islands of the 

 East frequents steamy forests. The orang is a large 

 and heavily built ape, with a melancholy countenance, 

 and a very protuberant abdomen, a feature of all the 

 Anthropoids except the specially athletic gibbons. 

 Its tawny yellow colour is well known, and it has been 

 pointed out that while the black chimpanzee and 

 gorilla share their forests with equally black man, the 

 yellow Malay pursues the yellow orang. 



As with the anthropoid apes generally, the examples 

 of orangs exhibited at the Zoo are invariably young 

 creatures, and thus do not show all the salient characters 

 of the huge ape of Borneo. For in the fully developed 

 male the face is broadened by a callous expansion at the 

 sides, which is eminently characteristic, and gives to 

 the ape a remarkable look distinctive of it. The orang 

 is more peaceable than its relatives in Africa, and is 

 said to rarely dispute matters with man. Those at 

 the Zoo seem to have always a friendly attitude of mind, 

 which seems to fit in with their slow ways and some- 

 what sad demeanour. At times, however, the orang 

 can lose its temper ; Mr. Wallace reports a continued 



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