A PET ORANG-OUTANG— THE GIBBONS. 



685 



but when its food was not sufficiently sweet or palatable, it would turn the mouthful 

 about with its tongue for a moment, as if trying to extract what flavor there was, and 

 then push it all out between its lips. If the same food was continued, it would set 

 up a scream, and kick about violently exactly like a baby in a passion. After I had 

 had the little mias about three weeks I obtained a young monkey which, though small 

 was very active, and could feed itself. I placed it in the same box with the mias, and 

 they soon became excellent friends, neither exhibiting the least fear of the other. The 

 little monkey would sit upon the other's stomach, or even on its face, without the 

 least regard for its feelings. While I was feeding the mias, the monkey would sit by, 

 picking up all that was spilt, and as soon as I had finished would pick off what was 

 left sticking to the mias's lips, and then pull open its mouth to see if any was left 

 inside ; afterwards lying down on the poor creature's stomach as on a comfortable 

 cushion. The little helpless mias would submit to all these insults with the most exem- 

 plary patience, only too glad to have something warm near it, which it could clasp 

 affectionately in its arms. After five weeks it cut its two upper front teeth ; but in all 

 this time it had not grown the least bit, remaining both in size and weight the same as 

 when I first procured it. This was no doubt owing to the want of milk or other 

 equally nourishing food. At length it was taken seriously ill, the symptoms being 

 exactly those of intermittent fever, accompanied by watery swellings on the feet and 

 head. It lost all appetite for its food, and after lingering a week, a most pitiable 

 object, it died, having been in my possession nearly three months. I much regretted 

 the loss of my little pet, which I had at one time looked forward to bringing up to 

 years of maturity, and taking home to England. It had afforded me daily amusement 

 by its curious ways and the inimitably ludicrous expression of its little countenance. 

 Its weight was three pounds nine ounces, its hight fourteen inches, and the spread of 

 its arms twenty-three inches." 



We have dwelt at some length upon the Gorilla and the Orang-outang, because they 

 are the largest of the monkey tribes ; and because until within a few years very little 

 has been positively known of them ; and it is believed that no living specimen of 

 either has ever been seen away from their native homes. We shall pass rapidly over 

 a few of the most remarkable of the monkey tribes. 



The series of the large anthropomorphous apes closes with the Gibbons. Their 

 arms, which reach to the ankle joints when the animal is standing erect, are longer 

 than those of the uran ; their brain, and consequently their intelligence, is less devel- 

 oped ; and moreover, like all the following simise of the Old World, they possess cal- 

 losities on each side of the tail. Their size is inferior to that of the orang, and their 

 body is covered with thicker hair, gray, brown, black, or white — according to the 

 species — but never parti-colored, as is the case with many of the long-tailed monkeys. 

 To the gibbons belong the black Siamang of Sumatra — who, assembled in large 

 troops, hail the first blush of early morn, and bid farewell to the setting sun with 

 dreadful clamors — the black, white-bearded Lar of Siam and Malacca, and the Wou- 

 Wou {Hylohates leuciscus) who, hanging suspended by his long arms, and swinging to 

 and fro in the air, allows one to approach within fifty yards, and then, suddenly drop- 

 ping upon a lower branch, climbs again leisurely to the top of the tree. He is a quiet, 

 solitary creature of a melancholy peaceful nature, pursuing a harmless life, feeding 

 upon fruits in the vast untrodden recesses of the forest ; and his peculiar noise is iu 



