Description of a Gibbon. 33 



what Dr. Jeffries, of tins city has described as an ourang- 

 outang,* and as I have lately made a dissection of another 

 ourang which has been exhibited in this country alive ; 

 such advantages as these, have given a fair opportunity for 

 more correct deductions by comparis6n. 



This animal, a female, was purchased at the same time 

 with a male, from the menagerie of a Rajah at Calcutta, 

 who said that they were obtained from the vicinity of the 

 Himmalay Mountains, and had not long been in his pos- 

 session. They were held in great estimation by him for 

 thek r^ity. Both were purchased by the same gentle- 

 man. The female died in forty days after leaving Cal- 

 cutta, from a bowel complaint, and the male, being simi- 

 larly affected, surviv^ed her but a fortnight. These ani- 

 mals were reserved, very gentle, and uncommonly cleanly 

 as to their bodies and their food. They evinced great 

 attachment for each other, as particularly appeared during 

 the sickness of the female ; the other holding her in his 

 arms as a parent does her infant ! and after her death he 

 immediately refused sustenance, and, as before stated, 

 shortly died. The body of the female was preserved in 

 arrack, but the other, unfortunately, was thrown away. 

 Their food was rice. Their only manner of walking was 

 on their posterior or mferior extremities; the otliers being 

 raised upwards to preserve their equilibrium, as rope- 

 dancers are assisted by long poles in their feats. Their 

 progression was not by placing one foot before the other, 

 but by simultaneously using both, as in jumping. Tiie 



* Geoffroj St. Hilaire regards the animal described hy Dr. Jeffries 

 as a young individual of the Pongo of Wurmb» and the great length 

 of the spinous processea of the cervical vertebrte, tlie want of the 

 flat nails on the extremitieSj the length of the arinSj and the same 

 " habitat," seem to justify his opinion. 



^ VOL. I. PART r. 5 



