418 QUADRUMANA. 



Visme described and figured a Gibbon, regarded by most naturalists as 

 the Hoolock ; but the details are so meagre, and the figures so bad, that it 

 is impossible to identify the species with any degree of certainty. To this 

 brief list the celebrated Camper added the H. leuciscus, or Wou-wou, as 

 he terms it; of which he published an account, both descriptive and 

 anatomical. 



Such, then, to the close of the eighteenth century, was the extent of 

 the information possessed regarding these animals. Within the last few 

 years, however, our knowledge of the Gibbons, in consequence of our con- 

 tinued intercourse with Borneo, Sumatra, and Java, has greatly increased. 

 The Siamang, the Ungka-puti, and Ungka-etam (the two latter being varieties 

 of one species, according to Miiller) are due to the researches of the late 

 Sir T. S. Raffles : the H. concolor rests on the description published by 

 Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, who, also, redescribed the Hoolock ; and two 

 species (in 1839 and 1840) have been added to the list by Mr. Ogilby. 

 The Gibbons inhabit, respectively, Malacca and Siam, Assam, and the islands 

 of Borneo, Sumatra and Java ; the species being restricted each to their 

 exclusive province or island. It has not been ascertained that any inhabit 

 continental India within the Ganges. That described by Buffon was, 

 indeed, brought, as is stated, from Pondicherry ; but was, most probably, 

 conveyed there from Malacca, of which the Lar is known to be a native. 

 Mr. Ogilby, however, in his work on "Monkeys, Lemurs, and Opossums," 

 states, that he has been informed, by "an Indian officer of high rank and 

 celebrity, that there is, unquestionably, a real Ape (probably the Lar) in 

 the forests of the Malabar coast : he had often heard the natives speak of 

 it, and not unfrequently heard its cry, woo-woo, in the woods, though he 

 had never actually seen it." If the Lar be, indeed, found in Malabar, its 

 residence, also, on the Coromandel coast, where Pondicherry is situated, 

 will then appear to be very probable ; and, in this case, its range of habitat 

 will be more extensive than that of any other Gibbon. 



Pre-eminently qualified for arboreal habits, and displaying among the 

 branches amazing activity, the Gibbons are not so awkward or embarrassed 

 on a level surface as might be imagined : they walk erect, with a waddling 

 or unsteady gait, but at a quick pace ; the equilibrium of the body requiring 

 to be perpetually kept up, either by touching the ground with the 

 knuckles, first on one side, then on the other, or by uplifting the arms, so 

 as thus to poise it. As with the Chimpanzee, the whole of the narrow, 

 long sole of the foot is placed upon the ground at once, and raised at once, 

 without any elasticity of step ; the short legs have the crooked contour 

 noticed both in the Chimpanzee and Orang. It is, however, in the trees 

 that they are seen to the most advantage. : there, free and unembarrassed, 

 they appear almost to fly from bough to bough, and assume in their 

 gambols every imaginable attitude : hanging by their long arms, they 



