THE GIBBONS 25 



Borneo, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Burma, and Siam. 

 With the Gray Gibbon,^ of Borneo, I am well acquainted; 

 and after the three great manlike 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 affec- 

 tion 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 distances, catching with 

 their hands, swinging under, catching with their feet, turn- 

 ing again, and so on by a series of revolutions, almost as fast 

 as the flight of a bird. 



The Siamang,^ of Sumatra, is the largest and rarest of 

 the Gibbons. It is jet-black, all over, face as well as fur, 

 and it has a throat pouch which is distended to astounding pro- 

 portions when it utters its peculiar, piercing cry. This species 

 is as rare in captivity as the gorilla, and the only specimen 

 seen alive in the New World up to 1914 was exhibited at the 

 New York Zoological Park in 1903. 



' Hy-lo-ba'tes leu-cis'cus. ^ Sym-pha-lan'gns syn-dac'ty-lus. 



