1 8 MAMMALIA ORDER I. PRIMATES. 



lazily on a tree ; and when approached, only took the trouble to interpose the 

 trunk between us, peeping at me and dodging as I dodged. I hit him on 

 the wrist, and he was afterwards despatched." 



The last members of the family are the gibbons (Hyloba.tes) which are 

 restricted to the warmer parts of South-Eastern Asia, and are especially 

 abundant in the Malay Peninsula and islands. They are 

 Gibbons (Hylo- the lowest and smallest representatives of the man-like apes, 

 bates). and although agreeing with those above described in the 



absence of a tail and cheek-pouches, and by the circumstance 

 that their grinding-teeth are constructed on precisely the same plan as those 

 of ourselves, they approximate to the lower monkeys in possessing small 

 naked callosities on the buttocks. In habitually walking in the upright 

 position, frequently with the assistance of their enormously elongated arms, 

 they are peculiar in the ape world. This peculiarity, coupled with their 

 apparently human-like skulls, might lead the uninitiated to suppose that 

 these creatures were the most man-like of all apes. A moment's reflection 

 would, however, show that in such highly-organised animals, a small 

 species, in order to be able to carry on the functions necessary to its exis- 

 tence, must have a proportionately larger brain than its bigger relatives ; 

 and a large brain implies, of course, a large skull. Moreover, in small and 

 purely arboreal animals like the gibbons, there is no reason why the skull 

 should be strengthened by the enormous frontal ridges which give such a 

 repulsive aspect to the physiognomy of the male gorilla. Accordingly, we 

 see that the somewhat human-like form of the skulls of the gibbons does not 

 in any way indicate that they are more nearly related to ourselves than their 

 larger kindred ; while the callosities on their buttocks, and several features in 

 their anatomical structure, show that they are decidedly less so. 



Although in the confined space of a cage in the "Zoo" the gibbons have 

 but little opportunity of displaying the marvellous activity by which they 



are characterised in their native woods, 

 yet even there their engaging manners 

 cannot fail to attract attention ; and 

 many show the gentleness and docility 

 so distinctive of these apes in a most 

 marked manner. In the more congenial 

 climate of Calcutta, which admits of 

 gibbons being placed in the open air, 

 their movements are, however, far 

 more like those of the wild state ; and 

 one of these creatures in the local 

 "Zoo"showedits lightning-like activity 

 by actually catching birds while on the 

 wing. Not only is this bold activity 

 Fig 9, A GIBBOK (Hylobates), characteristic of the gibbons, but they 



likewise exhibit a wonderful delicacy 



of touch. For instance, many gibbons display a marked penchant for spiders, 

 which are captured with the long slender fingers ; but before devouring their 

 prizes these animals will not unf requently play with them for hours, allowing 

 them to descend by spinning a thread from one of their captor ; s fingers, and 

 then suddenly jerking them upwards into their hands. Not less noteworthy 

 than their active movements are the loud, unearthly cries of the gibbons, in 

 imitation of which the hulock (H. hulock) of Assam, Burma, etc., derives 



