430 QUADRUMANA. 



that she submits to discipline : she has often turned upon her keeper with 

 every demonstration of anger, and engaged with him in a struggle for 

 the mastery. It is almost impossible to convey in words an idea of the 

 quickness and graceful address of her movements : they may, indeed, be 

 termed aerial, as she seems merely to touch, in her progress, the branches 

 among which she exhibits her evolutions. In these feats her hands and 

 arms are the sole organs of locomotion ; her body hanging, as if suspended 

 by a rope, sustained by one hand (the right, for example), she launches her- 

 self, by an energetic movement, to a distant branch, which she catches with 

 the left hand : but her hold is less than momentary ; the impulse for the 

 next launch is acquired : the branch then aimed at is attained by the right 

 hand again, and quitted instantaneously, and so on, in alternate succession. 

 In this manner, spaces of twelve and eighteen feet are cleared with the 

 greatest ease, and uninterruptedly, for hours together, without the slightest 

 appearance of fatigue being manifested : and it is evident, that if more 

 space could be allowed, distances very greatly exceeding eighteen feet 

 would be as easily cleared ; so that Duvaucel's assertion, that he has 

 seen these animals launch themselves from one branch to another, forty 

 feet asunder, startling as it is, may be well credited. Sometimes, on 

 seizing a branch in her progress, she will throw herself, by the power of 

 one arm only, completely round it, making a revolution with such rapidity 

 as almost to deceive the eye, and continue her progress with undiminished 

 velocity. It is singular to observe how suddenly this Gibbon can stop, 

 when the impetus, given by the rapidity and distance of her swinging 

 leaps, would seem to require a gradual abatement of her movements. In 

 the very midst of her flight a branch is seized, the body raised, and she 

 is seen, as if by magic, quietly seated on it, grasping it with her feet. As 

 suddenly she again throws herself into action. 



The following facts will convey some notion of her dexterity and quick- 

 ness. A live bird was let loose in her apartment ; she marked its flight, 

 made a long swing to a distant branch, caught the bird with one hand in 

 her passage, and attained the branch with her other hand ; her aim, 

 both at the bird and the branch, being as successful as if one object 

 only had engaged her attention. It may be added, that she instantly bit 

 off the head of the bird, picked its feathers, and then threw it down, 

 without attempting to eat it. 



On another occasion, this animal swung herself from a perch, across 

 a passage, at least twelve feet wide, against a window, which it was 

 thought would be immediately broken ; but not so : to the surprise of all, 

 she caught the narrow frame-work between two panes with her hand, in 

 an instant attained the proper impetus, and sprang back again to the 

 cage she left a feat requiring, not only great strength, but the nicest 

 precision. She is fond of fruit, and often displays her dexterity in 



