1 66 ; GUIDE TO THE 
to elude the vigilance of the keeper and escaped just as 
he turned to close the door. She at once ran after 
an ayah who had been looking at her a few minutes 
before, and attacked her, making a frightful gash with 
her long canines in the woman’s leg. Visitors should 
be careful in approaching her cage as she is wont to 
throw out her long arms and attempt to drag female 
visitors towards her, and, in doing so, many a new kid 
glove and bonnet have been irretrievably ruined, and, on 
one occasion, a gold watch and chain were carried off, and, 
on another, a locket. 
The Gibbons would appear to live largely on an insect 
diet, varying it occasionally with fruits, but they also harry 
the nests of birds, eating both eggs and hatchlings. 
In addition to their other accomplishments, the Gibbons 
have the ability to run erect, and in doing so they 
balance their bodies by holding their arms bent over 
their heads, but their progression in this manner, although 
rapid, is awkward. The formation of their hands and feet 
confers on them a considerable prehensile power which 
renders them admirably adapted to their arboreal habit 
of life. The Hoolock has a narrow white band above 
the eyes, and, as already said, its coat is blackish, but, 
in some, more or less yellowish, and a similar variation is 
observable in the Gibbon of Burma and the Malayan 
peninsula, H. lav, which is distinguished from H. hoolock 
by its white hands and feet. The voices of these two 
species are quite distinct. 
The other species here, in Cage 3, H. leuciscus , the 
Wow-wow or Silvery Gibbon, is a very gentle creature^ 
having a call resembling the trill of a bird. Its exact 
distribution has not been ascertained and very little is 
