GIBBONS. 6 1 



most insupportable annoyance. By way of compensation, they preserve a most 

 profound silence during the daytime, unless when disturbed in their repose or sleep. 

 These animals are slo\v and heavy in their gait; they want confidence when they 

 climb, and agility when they leap, so that they may be easily caught, when they 

 can be surprised. But nature, in depriving them of the means of readily escaping 

 danger, has endowed them with a vigilance which rarely fails them ; if they hear a 

 noise which is strange to them, even though they be at a mile's distance, fright 

 seizes them, and they immediately take flight. When surprised on the ground, 

 however, they may be captured without resistance, being either overwhelmed with 

 fear, or conscious of their weakness and the impossibility of escaping. At first, 

 indeed, they endeavour to avoid their pursuers by flight, and it is then that their 

 awkwardness in this exercise is most apparent. Their body, too tall and heavy for 

 their short, slender thighs, inclines forwards, and availing themselves of their long 

 arms, as crutches, they thus advance by jerks, which resemble the hobbling of a 

 lame man whom fear compels to make an extraordinary effort." 



Their want of agility when surprised on the ground is, however, amply made 

 up for when in the trees, where they take long flying leaps. According to a 

 German writer, Herr Rosenberg, siamangs inhabit forests in Sumatra at an elevation 

 of some three thousand feet above the sea-level, rarely leaving the trees to descend 

 to the ground. At any sudden fright they rush violently down the mountain sides, 

 by leaping from bough to bough and from tree to tree in the manner already 

 mentioned. According, however, to Mr. Wallace, in his Malay Archipelago, the 

 siamang is decidedly slower in its movements than the other gibbons, not taking such 

 tremendously long leaps, and keeping at a lower elevation in the trees. The 

 extraordinary relative length of its arms is well indicated in the description of 

 the same writer, who observes that in an individual about three feet in height, 

 they measure five feet six inches from hand to hand, when stretched out at right 

 angles to the body. A young siamang brought to Mr. Wallace, was at first 

 somewhat savage, but soon became more amenable to discipline, feeding readily 

 on rice and fruits. This individual, which Mr. Wallace had intended to transport 

 to England, did not, however, long survive in captivity. And it appears that 

 the Malays, who are stated to be adepts in keeping and taming wild animals, find it 

 exceedingly difficult to keep siamangs for any length of time. Siamangs have been 

 exhibited alive in the Zoological Gardens at Calcutta. In disposition they are 

 regarded by the Malays as stupid and dull. Mr. Wallace considers that this species 

 is found in the Malay Peninsula, but this is doubted by Mr. Blanford ; and it appears, 

 according to Mr. Wallace, to be but little known, even in Singapore, where the 

 captive specimen, already mentioned, attracted a considerable amount of attention. 



A white siamang is recorded by Sir Stamford Raffles as having been obtained 

 by him in Sumatra. 



THE WHITE-HANDED GIBBON (Hylobates lar). 



We may take as our first example of the more typical species of the group, 

 all of which are very closely allied, the white-handed gibbon, represented in the 

 figure on p. 58. This species, like all the other typical gibbons, is consider- 



