198 Note on the Gibbon of Tenasserim, Hyhbates lar. [No. 2, 



a birth, two being as rare as twins in the human race. The young 

 one sticks to its mother's body for about seven months and then be- 

 gins gradually to shift for itself. So entirely does this animal confine 

 itself to its hands for locomotion about the trees, that it holds any 

 thing it may have to carry by its hind hands or feet. In this way I 

 have seen them scamper off with their plunder, out of a Karen plan- 

 tain garden in the forest. 



I have had many of these animals while young in confinement. 

 They were generally feeble, dull, and querulous, sitting huddled upon 

 the ground, and seldom or never climbing trees. On the smooth sur- 

 face of a matted floor they would run along on their feet and slide on 

 their hands at the same time. By being fed solely on plantains, or 

 on milk and rice, they were apt to lose all their fur, presenting in 

 their nude state a most ridiculous appearance. Few recovered from 

 this state : but a change of diet, especially allowing them to help 

 themselves to insects, enabled some to come round, resuming their 

 natural covering. For the most part they were devoid of those 

 pranks and tricks which are exhibited by the young of the Maeacus 

 and Inuus, though occasionally and if not tied up, they would gambol 

 about with cats, pups, or young monkeys. 



The tawny and the black varieties of the Gibbon appear to mix 

 indiscriminately together. The Karens in the Tenasserim provinces 

 consider there is a third variety which they name " Khayoo paba," 

 and the Talains " Woot-o-padyn" (blue ape). This is probably the 

 party-coloured or mottled phase of the animal, which occurs very often 

 to the southward, in Malacca. The pale variety is more numerous in 

 the district of Amherst than the black one. 



Hylobates lar extends southward to the Straits, and northward to 

 the northerly confines of Pegoo (British Burma) : whether it is found 

 throughout Burma proper or not, I cannot ascertain. To the west of 

 the spur dividing British Burma from Arakan, and throughout the 

 latter province into the mountains east of Chittagong, is found only 

 Hylobates hooloch. And further northward in the forests and hills 

 of Cachar, Munnipoor and Asam exists either a third species, (not yet 

 I believe distinguished by naturalists,) or if the same species as 2T. 

 hooloeh, so strongly modified as to be larger and stouter, with a 

 totally different call, and subject to vary in colour the same as JE lar 

 which M. hooloeh in Arakan is not. 



