ORDER QUADRUMANA. 253 



Of the intellectual properties of this species, as we can 

 add little new or even confirmatory of what has been 

 already published, we shall not say much. If the account 

 of Grand-Pre, and other travellers, can be relied upon, it 

 seems to surpass that of the Orang Outang. Docility, sub- 

 missiveness, and an apparent melancholy have marked the 

 characters of the few young specimens brought to Europe, 

 rather than any mental acuteness, surpassing that found in 

 most of the species of the quadrumanous race in general. 



The habitat of the Chimpanse seems strictly confined to 

 intertropical Africa — that of the Orang Outang we have 

 already noticed is Asiatic. 



The Gibbon,* simia lar of Linnaeus, called also simia 

 longimana by Schreber, is distinguished in common with 

 the other Gibbons by the enormous length of the anterior 

 extremities. The arms, when the animal stands erect, very 

 nearly touch the ground. The eyes are large and deeply 

 seated — the nose is flat — and the ears not unlike the 

 human. 



There is a circle of gray hairs passing over the eyes, 

 cheeks, and under the lower jaw, which completely surrounds 

 the visage and gives a very singular appearance to the 

 animal. The hair also on the backs of the hands and feet is 

 gray, in all other parts of the animal it is black, as is also 

 the skin. The Gibbon has not been found exceeding four 

 feet in height. 



* Gibbon appears to be a name of ancient origin. Delachamp, in a note on 

 Pliny, tells us that the animal called Cephos by that naturalist, has received 

 from Strabo the designation of Keipon, from which the term Gibbon or Gibon 

 may easily be formed. The origin of these words may be Koph or Kophin, 

 which in Hebrew and Chaldee is the name of the ape. It is, however, at least 

 doubtful whether the Cephos of Pliny and the Gibbon be the same — the ha- 

 bitat differs, and Pliny has not noticed the elongated arms. The following is 

 the passage : " Pompeii magni, primum ludi ostenderunt ex ./Ethiopia quas 

 vocant Cephos quarum pedes posteriores pedibus humanis et cruribus, priores 

 manibus fuere similes. Hoc animal postea Roma non vidit." Dal. Plin. Hist. 

 Nat. lib. viii. cap. 19. 



Vol. I. T 



