S 84 THE FOSSIL MAN OF JAVA CHAP. 



the most part parallel to each other. Above this framework a 

 number of loose leaves lay. There is no doubt, therefore, that 

 these nests are not by any means elaborate structures, and that 

 they only serve as sleeping-places, and not as nurseries for the up- 

 bringing of the young, as has been asserted. 



The Orang seems to be usually of a fairly mild disposition ; it 

 will rarely attack a man unprovoked. But Dr. Wallace, who has 

 accumulated a large number of observations upon these animals, 

 describes a female Orang who " on a durian tree kept up for at 

 least ten minutes a contiuuous shower of branches, and of the 

 heavy-spined fruits as large as •■_! 2 -pounders, which most effectually 

 kept us clear of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking 

 them off and throwing them down with every appearance of rage, 

 uttering at intervals a loud pumping grunt, and evidently mean- 

 ing mischief" The name given l)y the Dyaks to the Orang is 

 Mias Pappan.^ 



Fossil Anthropoid Apes. — Undoubtedly the most interesting 

 of fossil Anthropoids is the now famous Pithecanthrop'us erectus. 

 Our knowledge of it is due in the first place to Dubois.'^ But there 

 is hardly an anatomist or an anthropologist who has not had his say 

 upon this regrettably very incomplete remnant. The creature is only 

 known by a calvarium, two separate teeth, and a femm-. And the 

 femur, moreover, is diseased. M. Dubois discovered these remains 

 in the island of Java in andesite tufa of Pliocene or at least 

 early Pleistocene age. The remains were found in company with 

 Stegoclon, which is now extinct, and Hiirpopofdmus, which is no 

 longer found in that part of the world. The name Pitliecanthropus 

 was given to it by the discoverer in order to furnish with a 

 definite habitation and a name the theoretical Pithecanthropus of 

 Haeckel. Even the most particular of students of mammalian 

 nomenclature will hardly object to the utilisation of a name for a 

 second time which is with some clearness a nomen nudum ! 

 The animal when erect must have stood 5 feet 6 inches high. 

 The contents of the cranium must have been 1000 cm., that is to 

 say 400 cm. more than the cranial capacity of any Anthropoid 



1 For the external appearance of the Orang see Hermes, Zcitschr. f. Ethn. 1876, 

 a paper Avhicli has coloured plates. 



^ Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschenahnliche Uebcrgangsform aus Java, 

 Batavia, 1894. See also Ernst Haeckel, The Last Link (with notes by H. Gadow), 

 London, 1898 ; Manouvrier, Amer. Journ. Sci. 1897, p. 213 (extracts) ; and Klaatsch, 

 Zoolog. Centralbl. vi. 1899, p. 217. 



