IN BORNEAN FORESTS 



[chap. 



one wound, near the coccyx, the bullet having penetrated all the 

 viscera without touching a single bone. 



It was a fully adult male, but the more experienced hunters 

 maintained that it had not by any means attained its full dimen- 

 sions. Atzon assured me that he had once killed a much bigger 

 one, very old, with hair nearly white, having lost its canine teeth 

 through age. Before skinning the animal my measurements, 

 taken with the precautions already mentioned, gave the following 

 results : — - 1 



Total height from crown to sole of the feet (Some 

 little addition should be made to this measurement, for the 

 body was stiff and the legs much bent) .... 1-260 



Width of the extended arms 

 Length of trunk, crown to coccyx 

 Circumference of thorax, just below sternum 



of neck 



of forearm 



of arm 



of thigh 



of leg 

 Width of the face 

 Length of the face 



2-430 

 0-915 

 1*090 

 0*700 

 0-350 

 0*330 

 0*470 

 0*300 



0-323 

 0-310 



m. 



The face is, beyond doubt, the most singular feature in this 

 animal. Certainly, considering that it is one of the anthropoids, 

 the resemblance to that of Man is very much hidden, I may well 



1 Recently two living specimens of the " Mayas Tj aping " reached 

 Europe, and were kept alive for some time in the Jar din d' A cclimatation at 

 Paris (cf. L' Illustration, 13 Janvier, 1894). Both were males, and had the 

 expansions on the face strongly developed ;. in one, indeed, which must have 

 reached the fullest possible growth, they were extraordinarily so. This speci- 

 men, fully confirming the assertions of my hunter, had white hairs on the lips, 

 perhaps also a sign of great age. Its height from crown to sole was 1-40 m. 

 or 14 centim. more than the specimen shot by Atzon, but it should be stated 

 that the Paris specimen, besides the lateral face expansions, had a large fleshy 

 or fatty protuberance on the crown of the head, which must have added some- 

 what to its stature. The width of its extended arms was 19 centim. more 

 than in my specimen (8ft. 7 J in.) ; but even on this point it must be noted that 

 in orang-utans the fingers can never be fully extended, and this may cause 

 some difference in such measurements. On comparing the figure of the head 

 of the oldest of the two Mayas Tj aping which lived in Paris (published in an 

 excellent memoir in the Nouvelles Archives du Musee, 3 e serie, vol. vii. 

 1895) with that of my biggest specimen, now mounted in the Museo Civico at 

 Genoa, which was modelled on the drawings and measurements which I took 

 in the flesh, I note that the Paris specimen presents a greater accentuation of 

 the features, owing probably to age, as may be often seen in aged individuals 

 of the human species. Thus the superciliary ridges are much more prominent, 

 the eyes more sunk, the fatty expansions thinner and more laminated than 

 in the specimen at Genoa, which was, I imagine, killed at the florid epoch of 

 middle age. 



148 



