PONGO 201 
the forest beneath. The long and powerful arms are of the greatest 
use to the animal enabling it to climb easily 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. 
I have already described how it forms a nest when wounded, but it uses 
a similar one to sleep on almost every night. This is placed low 
down, however, on a small tree not more than twenty to fifty feet 
from the ground, probably because it is warmer, and less exposed to 
wind than higher up. Each Mias is said to make a fresh one for him- 
self every night; but I should think that is hardly probable, or their 
remains would be much more abundant; for though I saw several 
about the coal mines, there must have been many Ourangs about every 
day, and in a year their deserted nests would become very numerous. 
The Dyaks say that when it is very wet the Mias covers himself over 
with leaves of pandanus or large ferns, which has perhaps led to the 
story of his making a hut in the trees. 
“The Ourang 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 man, 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 fruits, 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 favorite. 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 con- 
tinual rain of rejected portions below the tree they are feeding on. 
The Durian is an especial favorite, 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 this fruit, the outer covering of which is so thick 
and tough, and closely covered with strong conical spines. It probably 
f 
