362 Lieut.-Col. S. R. Tickell on the Gibbon of Tenasserim. 



less readily on its hind legs than the Hoolock, having frequently 

 to prop and urge itself along by its knuckles on the ground. In 

 sitting it often rests on its elbows, and will lie readily on its back. 

 Anger it shows by a fixed steady look, with the mouth held 

 open and the lips occasionally retracted to show the canines, 

 with which it can bite severely ; but it more usually strikes with 

 its long hands, which are at such times held dangling and shaken 

 in a ridiculous manner, like a person who has suddenly burnt 

 his fingers. It is, on the whole, a gentle peaceable animal, very 

 timid, and so wild as not to bear confinement if captured adult. 

 The young seldom reach maturity when' deprived of liberty. 

 They are bom generally in the early part of the cold weather, a 

 single one at a birth, two being as rare as twins in the human 

 race. The young one sticks to its mother's body for about seven 

 months, and then begins gradually to shift for itself. So entirely 

 does this animal confine itself to its hands for locomotion about 

 the trees, that it holds anything it may have to carry by its hind 

 hands or feet. In this w^ay I have seen them scamper ofi" with 

 their plunder out of a Karen plantain-garden in the forest. 



I have had many of these animals while young in confinement. 

 They were generally feeble, dull, and querulous, sitting huddled 

 upon the ground, and seldom or never climbing trees. On the 

 smooth surface of a matted floor they would run along on their 

 feet and slide on their hands at the same time. By being fed 

 solely on plantains or on milk and rice, they were apt to lose 

 all their fur, presenting in their nude state a most ridiculous 

 appearance. Few recovered from this state; but a change of 

 diet, especially allowing them to help themselves to insects, en- 

 abled some to come round, resuming their natural covering. 

 For the most part they were devoid of those pranks and tricks 

 which are exhibited by the young of the Macacus and Inuus, 

 though occasionally, and if not tied up, they would gambol about 

 with cats, pups, or young monkeys. 



The tawny and the black varieties of the Gibbon appear to mix 

 indiscriminately together. The Karens in the Tenasserim pro- 

 vinces consider there is a third variety, which they name 

 " Khayoo paba,'' and the Talai'ns " Woot-o-padyn " (blue ape). 

 This is probably the party-coloured or mottled phase of the 

 animal, which occurs very often to the southward, in Malacca. 

 The pale variety is more numerous in the district of Amherst 

 than the black one. 



Hylobates Lar extends southward to the Straits, and north- 

 ward to the northerly confines of Pegoo (British Burma) : 

 whether it is found throughout Burma proper or not, I cannot 

 ascertain. To the west of the spur dividing British Burma from 

 Arakan, and throughout the latter province into the mountains 



