732 



PRIM A TES 



inhabit the swampy forests near the coasts ; and the males attain a 

 height of about 4 feet 4 inches. The body is very bulky and the 

 legs exceedingly short, but the arms are very long, reaching in the 



erect posture down to the 

 ankles. The Orang walks 

 resting on the knuckles of 

 the hands and the outer 

 sides of the feet, with the 

 soles of the latter turned 

 mainly inwards, as in Fig. 

 354. Its movements 

 appear to be slow and 

 deliberate, and in those 

 specimens which have been 

 kept in captivity in this 

 country the demeanour is 

 languid and melancholy, 

 although this is far from 

 being the case with those 

 shown in the more congenial 

 climate of the Zoological 

 Gardens at Calcutta. The 

 habits of these animals are 

 arboreal, and they build a 

 kind of shelter or nest of boughs and leaves ; their food appears 

 to consist mainly of fruits, and is exclusively of a vegetable nature. 

 The whole of the body is clothed with long hair of a reddish-brown 

 colour, and full-grown males have a well -developed beard; the 

 males not unfrequently also develop a large warty protuberance, 

 formed of fibro- cellular tissue, on either side of the face. The 

 hands are long, and are characterised by the small size of the 

 pollex, which does not reach to the end of the metacarpal of 

 the index finger. The feet have a similar structure, the hallux 

 only reaching to the middle of the proximal phalange of the 

 adjacent toe, and being often destitute not only of a nail, but 

 likewise of the terminal phalange. The presence of a centrale in 

 the carpus is a feature in which Simla agrees with Hylobates and 

 the lower Apes, and differs from the two following genera and Man. 

 With very rare exceptions the number of dorso-lumbar vertebrae is 

 sixteen, of which twelve carry ribs, and therefore belong to the 

 dorsal series, while the remaining four are lumbar. The distinction 

 between the last lumbar and the first sacral vertebrae is clearly 

 marked in young skeletons by the additional pleurapophysial 

 ossifications (sacral ribs) in the transverse processes of the latter. 

 Thus though Simia presents a closer resemblance to Man than does 

 AnthropopithecMS in the number of ribs, it differs in the more 



FIG. 353. Side view of the skull of adult Orang (Simia 

 satyrus). From Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i. pi. 53. 



