12 



OEDBKS OF MAMMALS— APES AND MONKEYS 



Zoological Park contained four Orangs, all of 

 which were easily taught to wear clothes, sit in 

 chairs at table, eat with fork and spoon, drink 

 from cups and bottles, and perform many other 

 human-like actions without nervousness, in the 

 presence of two thousand visitors. Each of the 

 Orangs learned its part in about two weeks' 

 training, and at the dinner-table acted with 

 gravity and decorum. "Rajah," the senior 

 member of the quartette, never once suffered 

 from stage fright, or lost his nerve during a pub- 

 lic performance. 



In captivity, young Orang-Utans are as af- 

 fectionate as human children, and very fond of 

 their human friends. In the jungles of Borneo 

 the full-grown males often fight savagely by 

 biting each other's faces, and by biting off fingers 

 and toes. At night the Orang makes a nest 

 to sleep upon, by breaking off leafy branches, 

 and laying them cross-wise in the forked top of 

 a sapling. On this huge nest-like bed it lies flat 

 upon its back, grasps a branch firmly in each 

 hand and foot, and is rocked to sleep by the 

 cradle-like swaying of the tree-top. 



Unless attacked at close quarters, in their for- 

 est homes, none of the great apes is dangerous 

 to man. All of them flee quickly from the 

 dreaded presence of Man, the Destroyer. They 

 never fight with clubs, but when attacked at 

 close quarters they bite, just as do human roughs. 

 When enraged, the gorilla does beat its breast 

 with its fists, just as Du Chaillu said; and it does 

 this even in captivity. 



"The Missing Link." — For thirty years at 

 least. Science has been seeking in the earth for 

 fossil remains of some creature literally standing 

 between man and the great apes, but at present 

 unknown. In 1879, Mr. A. H. Everett made for 

 the Zoological Society of London a thorough 

 examination of the deposits on the floors of some 

 of the caverns of Borneo. To-day, some natural- 

 ists are straying toward the lemurs in search of 

 the parent stem of man's ancestral tree. Vain 

 quest ! The gap between Man and Lemur is too 

 great to be bridged in this world. A coincidence 

 between skull bones is a long way from man- 

 likeness. 



Place upon the shoulders of a gorilla the head 

 of a chimpanzee, and we would have — what? 

 The Missing Link, no less, — a hairy, speechless 

 man! The man-apes we have. Let those who 



seek the undiscovered ape-man search the Ter- 

 tiary deposits of the fertile uplands that lie 

 between the gloomy equatorial forests of the 

 black apes and the Bushmen of South Africa: 

 for there, if anywhere, will the Missing Link 

 be found. 



The Gibbons. — From the three huge, coarse- 

 ly-formed and unwieldy man-like apes described 

 above, the line of descent drops abruptly and far. 

 Their nearest relatives are the Gibbons — creat- 

 ures of small size, marked delicacy of form, no 

 weight or strength to speak of, but of marvellous 

 agility in the tree-tops. Their heads are small 

 and round, their teeth are weak, and their faces 

 are like those of very tiny old men. ' 



Their arms and hands are of great length in 

 proportion to their body size, yet so very slender 

 are their muscles that a live Gibbon seems like a 

 hairy skin drawn over a skeleton. The largest 

 specimen I measured in Borneo had the follow- 

 ing remarkable dimensions: head and body, 19 

 inches; extent of outstretched arms and hands,- 

 5 feet 1 inch ; entire reach of arms and legs, 5 feet 

 1 inch; hand, 6^ inches long by 1 inch wide; 

 weight, lOi pounds. 



Of Gibbons there are about six species, and they 

 inhabit Borneo, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, 

 Burmah and Siam. With the Gray Gibbon,' 

 of Borneo, I am well acquainted; and after the 

 three great man-like apes, it is to me the most 

 wonderful of anthropoids. They are very timid, 

 the shyest of all Primates that I ever hunted, 

 and wonderfully successful in eluding the hunter. 

 Nevertheless, so strong is their affection for their 

 young, I have seen a whole troop that had made 

 good its escape, return at the call of an infant 

 Gibbon in trouble, and all reckless of their own 

 safety come down within twenty feet of their 

 deadly enemy. Very few other mammals will 

 do this. 



The most wonderful habit of the Gibbon is its 

 flight down hill when pursued. Of course it 

 never dreams of descending to the earth, but in 

 the half-open hill forests of Borneo I have seen 

 these creatures go downward through the tree- 

 tops, in a straight course, leaping incredible dis- 

 tances, catching with their hands, swinging un- 

 der, catching with their feet, turning again, and 

 so on by a series of revolutions, almost as fast as 

 the flight of a bird. 



' Hy-lo-ba'tes leu-ds'cus. 



