MAMMALS. 



709 



panzee and the gorilla are African. Of these the gibbons (there are 

 several species) are less like man than the rest, and hence they possess less 

 interest for us ; but still a short extract from the pages of Mr. Forbes is so 

 pathetic that the reader will pardon its introduction. "The wau-wau 

 gibbons," he says, " have a wonderfully human look in their eyes ; and it 

 was with great distress that I witnessed the death of the only one I ever 

 shot. Falling on its back with a dull thud on the ground, it raised itself 

 on its elbows, passed its long, taper fingers over the wound, gave a woeful 



Fig. 537. — Orang-utan (Simla satyrus). 



look at them, and fell back at full length, dead — ' saperti orang ' (just 

 like a man), as my boy remarked." 



For our knowledge of the habits of the orang-utan (the name is Malay, 

 and means man-of-the-woods) we are largely indebted to the researches of 

 A. R. Wallace, who spent a long time in Sumatra and Borneo, where this 

 species occurs. A characteristic feature of these large apes is the great 

 length of the arms. The Greek artists claimed that the outspread arms of 

 a perfect man should equal the height of the body ; but the largest orang 

 obtained by Wallace, l a giant,' was four feet and two inches tall, while 



