1 6 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



giving unmistakable signs of her delight in their company 

 and distress in their absence. She would often take the 

 hay from her bed and spread it at her side and with anxious 

 and obvious signs invite her keeper to sit beside her. M. 

 Palavicini credited a pair of orangs which he had in his 

 possession in 1759 with the still more remarkable quality 

 in animals of bashfulness. It is said that the female would 

 shrink from the too persistent gaze of a spectator, and throw 

 herself into the arms of the male, hiding her face in his 

 bosom. 



The Maternal In his " Marvels and Mysteries of Instinct," 

 Instinct. Mr. Garrett gives the following instance of 

 maternal aflfection. "A gentleman was out with a party of 

 men in Sumatra, when in some trees removed from a dense 

 forest a female orang-utan, with a young one in its arms, 

 was discovered, and the pursuit commenced. In the ardour 

 of the moment, and excited by the hope of possessing an 

 animal so rare, the gentleman forgot everything but the prize 

 before him, and urged on his men by the promise of a 

 reward, should their exertions be successful. Thus stimulated 

 they followed up the chase ; the animal, encumbered by her 

 young one, making prodigious efforts to gain the dense and 

 intricate recesses of the wood, springing from tree to tree, 

 and endeavouring by every means to elude her pursuers. 

 Several shots were fired, and at length one took fatal eflFect, 

 the ball penetrating the right side of the chest. Feeling 

 herself mortally wounded, and with the blood gushing from 

 her mouth, she from that moment took no care of herself, 

 but with a mother's feelings summoned up all her dying 

 energies to save her young one. She threw it onwards over 

 the tops of the trees, and from one branch to another, 

 taking the most desperate leaps after it herself, and again 

 facilitating its progress until, the intricacy of the forest being 

 nearly gained, its chances of success were sure. All this time 

 the blood was flowing: but her efforts had been unabated. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



