MAMMALOGY. 



every indication appears to have arrived at full maturity, is not 

 inferior in magnitude to the smallest race of mankind, and so power- 

 ful in its construction as to impress us fully with the persuasion that 

 when full-grown this animal must prove a truly formidable creature. 

 This explains the reason of the Orang-Outang being so rarely seen 

 aUve ; it is only in the young state that they can be taken, and even 

 then they are so impatient of captivity that they will not bear the 

 least appearance of confinement, so that the difficulty of rearing 

 them becomes perhaps insurmountable. Sir T. S. Raffles not long 

 since sent one alive from Borneo to the menagerie of the East India 

 Company at Calcutta as a rarity, but whether this will survive to 

 maturity appears to be very doubtful. Mr. Abel speaks of the peo- 

 ple flocking in crowds to see that which he had alive, and which was 

 afterwards brought alive to England, and it appears in general to be 

 as little known in India as in Europe. Even their remains are very 

 rare in our museum. 



There is no example of either kind of the Orang-Outang in the 

 British Museum, v,^e understand, at present. The College of Sur- 

 geons in London possesses the stuiFed skins of both kinds, the Rufous 

 and the Black, and also the skeletons of both. These animals were 

 originally presented to Sir Everard Home, who very humanely, in 

 order to avoid the necessity of putting these unfortunate captives to 

 death, consigned them to the care of Mr. Cross, the proprietor of 

 the Exeter Change menagerie, till they died, and then enriched the 

 museum of the college with their preserved remains. In the same 

 Institution there is also another of the Rufous kind in spirits and 

 another in an unprepared state, having the bones and flesh yet 

 undeveloped, and finally, the skull of one other, very considerably 



VOL. II. X 



