THE APE. 



SI 



they remain until dawn. Usually they fashion 

 one of these every evening, not returning to any 

 particular spot after roaming about all day, but 

 pass the night wherever they happen to be. The 

 large Apes are often met with in those districts 

 where the forests are of great extent ; for, being 

 accustomed to pass over the trees' where their 

 tops interlace, by swinging themselves from 

 branch to-branch by means of their long arms, 

 they could not exist in open countries or where 

 the trees stood widely apart. 



When passing along some large branch, these 

 animals walk in a semi-erect attitude, steadying 

 themselves at times by placing the knuckles of 

 the hand of one of the long arms upon the bark. 

 When the branches of an adjoining tree are 

 reached, they are seized with both hands, but be- 

 fore the animal is willing to trust himself to them 

 he pulls with all his strength, and, satisfied that 

 they will bear his weight, swings himself in an 

 easy curve into the next tree, and in this way 

 soon traverses a large extent of the forest. 



Apes do not have many enemies besides man, 

 particularly those species of such large size as 

 the Gorilla and its allies. In Borneo, where one 

 of the largest species dwells, the Orang-outang, 

 Wallace states that the natives declare it is never 

 attacked by any animal in the forest, with per- 



haps two rare exceptions, these being the Croco- 

 dile and the Python. The way in which he 

 meets the former is explained as follows : 



When the fruits fail in the forest, he goes to 

 the river-side to seek for young shoots of which 

 he is fond, or for such fruits as grow near the wa- 

 ter. There the Crocodile attempts to seize him, 

 but according to native testimony the Orang- 

 outang gets upon the reptile, beats it with its 

 hands, tears it, and pulling open its jaws, rips up 

 its throat and soon kills it. 



Should a Python or Boa-constrictor attack it, 

 the Mias, as it is called in Borneo, seizes the ser- 

 pent in his hands, bites it, and kills it without 

 any diii&culty. Such are the powerful though 

 usually peaceable animals to whose family the 

 one depicted in the illustration belongs. He is 

 the largest Ape yet discovered, and of all the 

 known species the Gorilla is about the only one 

 that has never been brought alive to Europe in 

 an adult state. 



The difficulty of keeping these creatures alive 

 when captured has been the chief reason why 

 they have not in common with other Apes been 

 inmates of our menageries ; for once deprived of 

 the fruits to which they are accustomed in their 

 native wilds, or exposed to the colder climates of 

 northern lands, they soon droop and die. 



