418 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE. 



islied measuring the mias killed yesterday, and was preparing to 

 set out for the usual morning's hunt, a troop of gibbons began 

 ■whistling — their cry sounds like whistling, and is easily imitated — 

 in the jungle close by, in fact within a hundred yards of the house. 

 Le Tiac and I were after them in less than a minute. It so hap- 

 pened that several paths had been cut through the jungle just 

 where the gibbons were, and, by their help, we were soon close to 

 our prey. We saw one or two of them swinging off in the distance, 

 and at last I caught sight of a fine large one, feeding quietly on 

 leaves, within gun-shot. I fired both ban'els to make sure of a kill, 

 and, in a minute or so, as I was walking under the tree to see 

 where my wah-wah was, down it came with a heavy " thud " within 

 two feet of me. A httle more and it would have fallen on my head. 



" To my surprise it was immediately followed by another, a 

 young one this time, which fell flat on its face on the soft earth a 

 yard further oK We picked it up and found it was veiy much 

 alive, having only a wound in the neck, and Le Tiac held it while 

 I reloaded and looked for others. The httle one set up a terrible 

 cry and kept it up steadily, which created a great commotion 

 amongst the other wah-wahs. They were all running away, but on 

 hearing the cries of the Httle one, two came back and came as near 

 as they dared, but kept so well concealed that I could not get a 

 shot. Then we carried the httle one about and let it cry while we 

 ourselves kept very stiU. It was, perhaps, a mean thing to do ; but 

 in collecting, necessity knows no law, every wild animal must die 

 some time, and gibbons are too valuable and hard to get for us to 

 let one go through symjiathy. Under all other circumstances these 

 animals are exceedingly timid, and flee at the slightest alarm, 

 but this time two of them returned in response to the cries of 

 one of their children in distress. It was a mean thing to do, I 

 know, but when, at last, I got a fair shot at a large wah-wah, of 

 the rescuing party, I disabled him so that he could not get away. 

 He climbed to the topmost branches of the tree he was in, which 

 was about ninety feet high, and I fired at him from below. I was 

 sm-prised at the shooting it took to collect him. 



" Altogether I fired seven shots with my No. 10 gun, loaded 

 with four drachms of powder and two ounces of No. 1 shot, before 

 he feU, and, to my still greater surprise, I found on examining the 

 body only one bone broken — a tibia. I expected to find the leg 

 and arm-bones mostly smashed to bits. The specimen was a large 

 male, and met its death solely on account of its paternal affection, 



