26 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



chimpanzees are known to occur to the northwest of the great lakes in the Niam- 

 Niam district, in 28 east longitude, and they are likewise recorded from Monbottu. 

 Dr. Emin Pasha, writing to the secretary of the Zoological Society of London, 

 considers, however, that they range to about the parallel of 32 east longitude. 

 Dr. Emin's letter states, " It may be interesting for you to hear that an anthropoid 

 ape exists in Uganda and Unyoro (the districts lying between the Victoria and the 

 Albert Nyanza). I cannot say whether it is identical with the Monbottu 

 chimpanzee or not. While staying in these countries the negroes told me much 

 about this animal, and in a manuscript map which I forwarded to Dr. Petermann, 

 I fixed its northern limit at 2 north latitude. Now I hear that this ape is frequent 

 in the thick forests near Ugoma, and I hasten to beg my friend King Kabrega for 

 some specimens. ' ' If this application to the king ever reached him it does not 

 appear to have been successful. Later on, however, Dr. Emin forwarded to Eng- 

 land the skull of a chimpanzee shot by himself near Lake Albert Nyanza, which 

 does not appear to differ from that of the West African form. 



Like all the other Man-like Apes the chimpanzees are forest- 

 Habits 



dwelling animals, although on the coast of the Loango district they 



are found in the mountains. Their food is usually the various wild fruits which 

 grow abundantly in these dense forests, but, as we have seen, at least the bald- 

 headed species will take kindly to an animal diet in captivity. 



The following account of the habits of the chimpanzee is taken from Dr. Hart- 

 mann, who draws much of his information from the German traveler, Schweinfurth, 

 as detailed in his work entitled From the Heart of Africa. Dr. Hartmann observes 

 that the chimpanzee either lives in separate families or in small groups of families. 

 "In many districts as, for example, in the forest regions of Central Africa its 

 habits are even more arboreal than are those of the gorilla. Elsewhere as, for 

 instance, on the southwest coast, it seems to live more upon the ground. The 

 Bam chimpanzee of Niam-Niam inhabits the galleries, as they were called by 

 Piaggia and Schweinfurth that is, the forest trees growing one above another in 

 stages, of which the growth is so dense that it is difficult to get at them. The 

 powerful stems, thickly overgrown with wild pepper, have branches from which 

 hang long streamers of bearded moss, and also a parasitic growth of that remarka- 

 ble fern to which Schweinfurth gave the name of elephant's ear. The large tun- 

 shaped structures of the tree termites (white ants) are found on the loftier boughs. 

 Other stems, rotten and decayed, serve as supports for the colossal streamers of 

 Mucuna urens (a climbing leguminous plant with yellow or white flowers and large 

 leathery seed-pods) , and form bowers overhung with impenetrable festoons, as large 

 as houses, in which perpetual darkness reigns. 



' ' When the chimpanzee goes on all fours, he generally supports himself on the 

 backs of his closed fingers (compare Fig. 6 of the illustration on p. 15) rather than 

 on the palm of the hand, and he goes sometimes on the soles of his feet, sometimes 

 on his closed toes. His gait also is weak and vacillating, and he can stand upright 

 on his feet for a still shorter time than the gorilla. At the same time he seeks 

 support for his hands, or clasps them above his head, which is a little thrown back 

 in order to maintain his balance." 



