THE CHIMPANZEE 



39 



chimpanzee. In the human, one hair becomes white, 

 while another retains its natural colour, but in this 

 ape all the hairs appear to undergo the same 

 change. 



In very aged specimens the outer part of the hair 

 often assumes a dirty, brownish colour, which is due 

 to the want of vascular action to supply the colour 

 pigment, and the same effect is often seen in pre- 

 served specimens, for the same reason that the hair 

 of an Egyptian mummy is brown, while in life it was 

 doubtless a jet black. In this ape the hair is uni- 

 formly black, except the small tuft of white at the 

 base of the spinal column and a few white hairs on 

 the lower lip and chin. I have examined about sixty 

 living specimens and I have never found any other 

 colour among them only from the cause mentioned. 

 The normal colour of both sexes is the same. 



The kulu, as a rule, has but little hair on the top 

 of its head, but that on the back of it and on the 

 neck is much longer than elsewhere on the body, and 

 longer on them than on other apes. 



Much stress is laid by some writers on the bald 

 head of one ape and the parted hair on that of 

 another. These features cannot be relied upon as 

 having any specific meaning, unless there are as 

 many species as there are apes. Sometimes a 

 specimen has no hair on the summit of its head, 

 while another differs from it in this respect alone by 

 having a suit of hair more or less dense, and yet in 

 every other respect they are the same. Some of 

 them have the hair growing almost down to the 



