554 WILD ANIMALS. 



person can run through the forest beneath. The long and 

 powerful arms are of the greatest use to the animal, enabling it to 

 climb easily up the loftiest trees, to seize fruits and young leaves 

 from slender boughs, which will not bear its weight, and to gather 

 leaves and branches with which to form its nest." 



An animal wounded by a shot began at once to form a nest, 

 upon which it lay down and died. The nest, generally built to 

 sleep on at night, is placed low down on a small tree, not more 

 than twenty to fifty feet from the ground, probably because such 

 a situation is warmer than in a more exalted position, where it 

 would be exposed to the wind. 



Each mias is said to make a fresh nest for himself every night, 

 but this is considered to be hardly probable, for if it were so, the 

 deserted nests would be much more numerous than they are. 



" The orang does not leave his bed till the sun has well risen 

 and has dried up the dew upon the leaves. He feeds all through 

 the middle of the day, but seldom returns to the same tree two 

 days running. They do not seem much alarmed at men, as they 

 often stared down upon me for several minutes, and then only 

 moved away slowly to an adjacent tree. After seeing one I have 

 often had to go half a mile or more to fetch my gun, and in 

 nearly every case have found it on the same tree, or within 

 a hundred yards, when I returned. I never saw two full-grown 

 animals together, but both males and females are sometimes 

 accompanied by half-grown young ones, while at other times, 

 three or four young ones were seen in company. Their food 

 consists almost exclusively of fruit, with occasionally leaves, 

 buds, and young shoots. They seem to prefer unripe fruits, 

 some of which were very sour, others intensely bitter, particularly 

 the large, red, fleshy arillus of one which seemed an especial 

 favourite. In other cases they eat only the small seed of a large 

 fruit, and they almost always waste and destroy more than they 

 eat, so that there is a continual rain of rejected portions below 

 the tree they are feeding on. The durian is an especial favourite, 

 and quantities of this delicious fruit are destroyed wherever it 

 grows surrounded by forest, but they will not cross clearings to 

 get at them. It seems wonderful how the animal can tear open 



