218 ANTHROPOID APES. 



gorilla, in which the male character is extremely 

 predominant. 



To what species, then, did Mafuca belong? A 

 cross between the gorilla and the chimpanzee was 

 often suggested at the time. I was myself inclined 

 to take this view, and it was advocated by C. Vogt 

 in his contemporary treatise on the subject, as 

 well as in the magnificent work which has lately 

 appeared, remarkable for the beauty of its illustra- 

 tions and the genius of its style.* H. von Koppenfels 

 heard much of such crossings when he was on the 

 Ogowe, nor is their occurrence by any means 

 impossible, and indeed they have been directly 

 observed among other species of apes while in con- 

 finement. Koppenfels also affirmed that he had 

 shot two such cross-bred animals, which were asso- 

 ciating with a troop of gorillas. The traveller 

 sought to kill others of the troop, but, when creeping 

 on hands and knees through the thick bushwood, he 

 was constrained to retreat by the attacks of some 

 stinging ants {Anomma arcens). The skins and 

 skeletons of the supposed cross-breds were brought 

 to the Natural History Institution in Dresden. 

 A. B. Meyer observed that the traveller was mis- 

 taken in these instances, and that the remains 

 sent by him to Europe were undoubtedly those of 

 chimpanzees.f It must be remembered that Kop- 



* Die Saugethiere in Wort wnd Bild., by C. Vogt and Specht, 

 p. 11 : Munich, 1882. 



t Mafoca Betreffendes. Reprinted from the reports of the 

 Gesellschaft fiir JS'atw und Heilkunde zu Dresden, Sitzimg, zxvii. 

 p. 9 : 1876. 



