40 Description of a Gibbon. 



that in the Gibbon the first, second, and third pairs of" ribs 

 are articulated with the first piece of the sternum, that 

 then follows a smaller piece w^hich is situated between 

 the third and fourth pairs of ribs, and that after this is a 

 large portion w^hich receives the ribs, reckoning from the 

 fourth to the seventh. But in the animal under consider- 



unite 



and then comes a bony prolongation, W'hich I have never 

 seen in any drawing of the skeletons of the Simice. The 

 Ourang which I have recently dissected has tlie steruuni 

 composed of four pieces. Dr. Jeffries' has four. 



7- I consider the nails of this animal as deviating in a 

 remarkable degree from the descriptions given by authoTS 

 whom I have consulted^ viz. 



: Latreille* observes, that the apes of the old continent 

 have their nails always flat, and instances the Gibbon. 

 Lesson, in the work already quoted, p. 243, in his remarks 

 on the Simice in general, adds, that the last phalanges are 

 covered with flat nails, the Ouistitis making the sole ex- 

 ception. Stark, in his Natural History, in his sub-genus 

 Ourangs, makes the nails sunilar to man in shape. 



If this Gibbon should prove to be an hitherto undescrib- 

 ed species, it might be named the Hylobdtes Fu^ais^ 

 from its be ins: throughout of a uniform, brown color. 



Plate I. is a very accurate representation of the skele- 

 ton ; a front view. 



Plate II . gives a side view of the head, and below^ one 

 of the feet, to exhibit the form of the nails. 



* Families NatureUea du Regne Animale, p. 42. 



