122 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



at an elevation of from twenty to as much as fifty 

 feet from the earth. They are composed of boughs 

 and twigs of trees, as well as the stems of creeping 

 plants, all of which are broken up into varjdng 

 lengths and laid across one another in a more or 

 less haphazard manner until they form a platform 

 of sufficient strength to support the weight of the 

 animals. It has been said that the orang-utan 

 builds a fresh nest every night, but the majority 

 of zoologists at the present day consider that the 

 available information in support of the statement 

 is not sufficient to prove conclusive, and point 

 out that if such were tlie case the nests would be 

 far more commonly seen than they are. 



The only known instance of an orang-utan's 

 nest having been built in this country was when 

 ' Jacob,' one of the inmates of the apes' house at the 

 London Zoological Gardens, managed to escape 

 from confinement. He succeeded in doing this 

 by breaking, with the aid of his fingers alone, some 

 small pieces of the thick wire netting with which 

 his cage was partly constructed, and afterwards 

 proceeded to untwist the interlacing strands until 

 an opening was made of sufficient size to allow his 

 bulky form to pass through. To give some idea 

 of the extraordinary strength displayed by the 

 ape in the accomplishment of his task, it may be 

 of interest to state that the workmen who were 

 sent to repair the damage had to make use of a 

 chisel and a large hammer in order to sever the 

 wire preparatory to removing and replacing it 

 with thick steel bars. When once outside his 



