138 LONG-ARMED CLIMBERS. 



above the level of the back ; bat generally it seeks an 

 elevated position. We usually see it in the morning 

 perched on the summit of some one of the more bushy 

 ■weeds in the Aquarium, as the Ghondrus or Phyllo- 

 pkora ruhens, where it has taken its station during the 

 night, the season of its chief activity, as of most other 

 Crustacea. It interested me much to see it climb : 

 seizing the twigs above it by stretching out its long 

 arms alternately, it dragged up its body from branch 

 to branch, mounting to the top of the plant deliber- 

 ately, but with ease. While watching it I was strongly 

 reminded of the Orang-otan at the Zoological Gardens; 

 the manner in which each of these very dissimilar 

 animals performed the same feat was so closely alike 

 as to create an agreeable feeling of surprise. 



This circumstance led me to think of another ; the 

 resemblance was not only in habit, but in conformation 

 also; viz. in the great length of arm. This is obviously 

 an adaptation for climbing in the Quadrumane as well 

 as the Crustacean ; and a few examples occured to my 

 remembrance in which a similar structure is associated 

 with the like habit. All the Monkey tribe, for instance ; 

 and the Sloths of South America, which are almost 

 exclusively arboreal, have the anterior limbs excess- 

 ively long. Many of the Longicorns among beetles 

 are remarkable for their developed arms, and these are 

 essentially tree-insects. Again, among the Spiders, 

 the perpendicular web-makers as Ejpeira, Tetragna- 

 tha, &c., which run to and fro on the tracery of their 

 fllender lines, like seamen manning the shrouds on a 

 fleet gala-day, — have the anterior legs much elongated; 

 while the genera which live on the ground or on fixed 



