THE HOOLOCK 



(Hylobates hoolock) 



THE Hoolock is the best known of the group of small long-armed 

 apes, known as Gibbons, which range through the hilly forest regions 

 of Eastern Asia from Bhutan to Hainan and Java ; the present species, 

 which is the most westerly in its range, extending east to Arracan. 



The form of this creature is slender and graceful ; the bodily shape 

 generally much resembles that of man, except for the great length of the 

 arms, which allow the finger-tips to touch the ground when the animal 

 stands erect ; the thumb and great toe are much larger than in the other 

 apes. The Hoolock, however, approaches the lower monkeys in several 

 anatomical characters, and in having, though only to a small extent, the 

 bare callous patches on the seat so commonly found in them, but absent 

 in the great anthropoid apes before dealt with. The canine teeth are 

 long and slender in both sexes. 



The coat is also composed of fur like a monkey's, rather than what 

 we more usually distinguish as hair. It varies very remarkably in colour, 

 the normal hue being black with a white band across the brow ; females, 

 however, are usually brownish-black, and often not black at all, but pale 

 straw colour, or pale above and brown below. The face, palms, and soles, 

 however, are always black. In size the creature is small, only reaching 

 a little over two feet in height. 



The Hoolock resembles man very markedly in one particular, in that 

 it is a true biped, running and walking on the hinder limbs alone, just 

 like a human being; the long arms are often stated to be held up or 

 forward when walking, but as I have seen the animal, it has done just 

 as a man would do if his arms were of such great length slightly bent 

 them so as to keep the hands clear of the ground. Although the gait is 

 flat-footed and awkward, the creature is nimble enough, and gets along 

 nearly as fast as a human being equally small could do. 



