7 



Central Africa, and shares about equally with the chim- 

 panzee the sum of characteristics that places these forms 

 nearest man. 



The CHIMPANZEE (Mimetes troglodytes Gray). This 

 ape inhabits Central Africa ; it does not attain the size of 

 the former, its extreme height being five feet ; examples, 

 however, are seldom met with as large as this. Its jet 

 black hair and placid, good-natured face is in striking con- 

 trast to the diabolical countenance of the gorilla. 



The ORANG-OUTAN {Simia wurmbii Fischer) is rep- 

 resented in this collection by five remarkably fine exam- 

 ples, in a group consisting of male and female adults, two 

 half-grown males, and a baby. A taxidermist of Prof. H. A. 

 Ward's establishment, in Rochester, N. Y., shot these in- 

 dividuals, constituting a family, in the situation in which 

 they are here seen. It is a habit of the orang to retain several 

 generations of its progeny in its neighborhood, and likewise 

 to construct platforms or open houses in the tree-tops as 

 here depicted. The taxidermist has preserved leaves, 

 fruit, and tree of the Durian, and here reproduced the 

 scene with great fidelity, all just as he saw it in the tropical 

 forest. The orang is quite dependent upon the tree-tops 

 for home and food, and is quite out of his element on the 

 ground ; his feet arc like hands, made to hold securely to 

 the boughs, and would be quite useless upon level ground. 



The GIBBONS {Hylobates) are native to the East Indies. 

 Eight species are known ; these with the three species of 

 great apes, above noticed, comprise the distinctly marked 

 group of man-like apes. The gibbons are seen to resemble 

 very closely the chimpanzee ; having no tails like their 

 allies of the group, they would seem to be quite removed 

 in point of rank from the next. That this is not the 

 case to any considerable extent is seen when we find that 

 group having the longest tails of any. These long tails 

 are equalled in some species of American monkeys, but 

 none are prehensile or clasping as in the latter. 



GROUP 2. — Semnopithecus. This genus is represent- 



