NOMADIC HABITS 97 



orang appears to be next ; the chimpanzee comes in for 

 third place, and the gorilla last. It must not be understood 

 that all of these apes do not frequently climb, even to the 

 tops of the highest trees ; but that is not their normal 

 mode of life, any more than the top of a mast is the habitual 

 place for a sailor on a ship. 



The chimpanzee is nomadic in habit, and, like the gorilla, 

 seldom or never passes two nights in the same spot. As 

 to his building huts or nests in trees or elsewhere, I am not 

 prepared to believe that he ever does that. For months I 

 hunted in vain and made diligent inquiry in several tribes, 

 but failed to find a specimen of any kind of shelter built by 

 an ape. I do not assert that it is absolutely untrue that he 

 does this, but I have never been able to obtain any evidence 

 of it, except the statement of the natives. On the con- 

 trary, certain facts point to the opposite belief. If the ape 

 built himself a permanent home, the natives would soon 

 discover it and there would be no difficulty in having it 

 pointed out. If he built a new one every night, however 

 rude and primitive it might be, there would be so many of 

 them in the forest that there would be no difficulty in find- 

 ing them. The nomadic habit plainly shows that he does 

 not build the former kind, and the utter absence of them 

 shows that he does not build the latter kind. The whole 

 story appears to be without foundation. 



In addition to these facts, one thing to be noticed is that 

 few or none of the mammals of the tropics ever build any 

 kind of home. The animals that in other climates have 

 the habit of burrowing do not appear to do so in the trop- 

 ics. This is due, no doubt, to the warm climate, in which 



