GORILLA 215 
in concealment in the adjoining woods, having probably been frightened 
away by the noise.” | 
Then Du Chaillu states “this incident led me to modify somewhat 
the opinions I had expressed in ‘Adventures in Equatorial Africa,’ 
regarding some of the habits of the gorilla. I there said that I believed 
it impossible to capture an adult female alive, but I ought to have 
added, unless wounded. I have also satisfied myself that the gorilla 
is more gregarious than I formerly considered it to be; at least it goes 
in bands more numerous than those I saw in my former journey. 
Then I never saw more than five together. I have myself seen, on my 
present expedition, two of these bands of gorillas numbering eight or 
ten, and have had authentic accounts from the natives of other similar 
bands. It is true that, when gorillas become aged, they seem to be more 
solitary, and to live in pairs, or, as in the case of old males, quite alone. 
I have been assured by the negroes that solitary and aged gorillas are 
sometimes seen almost white; the hair becomes grizzled with age, and 
I have no doubt that the statement of their becoming occasionally 
white with extreme old age is quite correct.” 
These facts, the gregariousness of the Gorilla, and the change 
in the color of the hair, raise grave doubts as to their being any number 
of distinct species. If there were as many as are recognized, with 
much reserve, in this work, and they are accustomed to rove in con- 
siderable number, the country suitable for their habitation is too 
limited in extent to keep these bands from meeting and mingling 
together, which would be fatal to the maintenance of distinct species, 
and as some supposed forms owe their distinct position mainly to the 
color of the hair, (cranial characters being altogether too unreliable), 
if this is merely indicative of age, nothing remains upon which to 
establish a distinctive character. Du Chaillu was apparently the first 
European to meet with and kill this savage creature in its native 
forest, and although his description of their habits and actions when 
they advanced to fight in defense of themselves and families was 
received with much doubt, and by certain persons almost with derision, 
yet accounts of this animal related by others who have penetrated its 
secluded haunts, have proved that he was fairly correct in his state- 
ments. He has given in his book, “Expeditions and Explorations in 
Equatorial Africa” a long account of the habits of the Gorilla from 
which the following passages are taken. 
“The gorilla,’ he says on commencing his narrative, “does not 
lurk in trees by the roadside and drag up unsuspicious passers-by 
in its claws and choke them to death in its vice-like paws; it does not 
