40 



THE MONKEYS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



the small rounded human -like ears, orbits 

 and jaws scarcely at all protruding, and the 

 but slightly flattened nose, the rounded 

 breast, as well as the internal structure of 

 the head and the skeleton of the body, would 

 cause these apes to resemble man more 

 closely than any others, were it not for the 

 greatly contracted abdomen, the long pointed 

 canines in the upper jaw, the monstrously 

 long arms, hands, and feet, the dense woolly 

 covering of hair, and the naked patches on 

 the buttocks answering to the ischial callosities 

 of other monkeys. This last feature is, how- 

 ever, not very conspicuous, inasmuch as the 

 patches are often hidden by the surrounding 

 hair. Even the brain is much less rich in 

 folds and convolutions, and resembles that of 

 the Semnopitheci rather than the complicated 

 brain of the large anthropoid apes. 



The presence of a pouch in the throat in 

 both sexes, of distinct though less noticeable 

 cheek-swellings in the old males, the structure 

 of the limbs, and the existence of a super- 

 numerary bone in the wrist, are all characters 

 in which this creature approaches the mias; 

 only one might say that the arms are 

 lengthened to the extent of caricature. They 

 are so long that the gibbons but seldom make 

 use of them in walking on the ground, which 

 indeed they touch only on exceptional occa- 

 sions when living in freedom. They then 

 waddle along upright with their great toes 

 widely spread out, with uplifted arms stretched 

 out sidewards as a balancing rod, the long 

 hands hanging down like goosewing-dusters, 

 the head hanging a little forwards, and the 

 back bent like a fiddle-bow. 



On the trees of the lower forests of the 

 Great Sunda Islands and the neighbourino- 

 mainland as far as Assam and Southern 

 China, and on the island of Hainan, dwell the 

 seven species of this genus, which are indeed 

 mostly distinguished by only very unimport- 

 ant differences. The only exception in this 

 respect is the largest spjecies, the Siamang 

 {Hylobates syndactyhis), which is found onlv 



on Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and 

 has the second and third toes of the hind-feet 

 united. 



All observers are unanimous in admiring 

 the facility, agility, and security with which 

 these apes, which mostly live socially in troops 

 of thirty or more, move about in their primeval 

 forests. They appear rather to fiy than to 

 leap. In the act of leaping they can alter the 

 direction in which they are moving. The 

 smallest twig serves as something to catch 

 hold of with their long arms or to rest on with 

 their powerful feet, in order to give them- 

 selves a new impetus for darting across 

 intervals of thirteen or fourteen yards. 

 Captive specimens have been known to catch 

 fruits thrown to them while darting through 

 the air, without being thereby prevented from 

 reaching their goal. Gibbons are to be found 

 only in low-lying regions, for in spite of the 

 frequently dense woolly fur with which they 

 are covered, they are extremely sensitive to 

 cold. They feed chiefly on juicy leaves, but, 

 as observations on captive specimens show, 

 do not despise insects and eggs, a diet in 

 which probably we may read the significance 

 of the large canines. A tamed hoolock ate 

 most eagerly of rice and bananas, and drank 

 coffee, tea, and milk, usually merely licking 

 its hand after dipping it into the liquid, as we 

 see one of the white-handed gibbons doing 

 in the illustration on p 43, though when very 

 thirsty it would drink out of the cup. But 

 besides the articles of food mentioned it would 

 also take eggs or the wing of a fowl from a 

 plate, and sought for spiders, and showed 

 great dexterity in catching flies with its right 

 hand, eating them when caught. 



With one exception all observers who have 

 seen gibbons in a state of nature or in 

 captivity describe them as good-humoured, 

 gentle, and even timid creatures, which live 

 at i^eace with other animals, readily accustom 

 themselves to the presence of well-disposed 

 men, have no bad habits, and afford much 

 entertainment by their astonishing feats of 



