GIBBONS. 
61 
most insupportable annoyance. By way of compensation, they preserve a most 
profound silence during the daytime, unless when disturbed in their repose or sleep. 
These animals are slow and heavy in their gait; they want confidence when they 
climb, and agility when they leap, so that they may be easily caught, when they 
can be surprised. But nature, in depriving them of the means of readily escaping 
danger, has endowed them with a vigilance which rarely fails them; if they hear a 
noise which is strange to them, even though they be at a mile’s distance, fright 
seizes them, and they immediately take flight. When surprised on the ground, 
however, they may be captured without resistance, being either overwhelmed with 
fear, or conscious of their weakness and the impossibility of escaping. At first, 
indeed, they endeavour to avoid their pursuers by flight, and it is then that their 
awkwardness in this exercise is most apparent. Their body, too tall and heavy for 
their short, slender thighs, inclines forwards, and availing themselves of their long 
arms, as crutches, they thus advance by jerks, which resemble the hobbling of a 
lame man whom fear compels to make an extraordinary effort.” 
Their want of agility when surprised on the ground is, however, amply made 
up for when in the trees, where they take long flying leaps. According to a 
German writer, Herr Rosenberg, siamangs inhabit forests in Sumatra at an elevation 
of some three thousand feet above the sea-level, rarely leaving the trees to descend 
to the ground. At any sudden fright they rush violently down the mountain sides, 
by leaping from bough to bough and from tree to tree in the manner already 
mentioned. According, however, to Mr. Wallace, in his Malay Archipelago, the 
siamang is decidedly slower in its movements than the other gibbons, not taking such 
tremendously long leaps, and keeping at a lower elevation in the trees. The 
extraordinary relative length of its arms is well indicated in the description of 
the same writer, who observes that in an individual about three feet in height, 
they measure five feet six inches from hand to hand, when stretched out at right 
angles to the body. A young siamang brought to Mr. Wallace, was at first 
somewhat savage, but soon became more amenable to discipline, feeding readily 
on rice and fruits. This individual, which Mr. Wallace had intended to transport 
to England, did not, however, long survive in captivity. And it appears that 
the Malays, who are stated to be adepts in keeping and taming wild animals, find it 
exceedingly difficult to keep siamangs for any length of time. Siamangs have been 
exhibited alive in the Zoological Gardens at Calcutta. In disposition they are 
regarded by the Malays as stupid and dull. Mr. Wallace considers that this species 
is found in the Malay Peninsula, but this is doubted by Mr. Blanford; and it appears, 
according to Mr. Wallace, to be but little known, even in Singapore, where the 
captive specimen, already mentioned, attracted a considerable amount of attention. 
A white siamang is recorded by Sir Stamford Raffles as having been obtained 
by him in Sumatra. 
The White-Handed Gibbon (.Hylobates lar). 
We may take as our first example of the more typical species of the group, 
all of which are very closely allied, the white-handed gibbon, represented in the 
figure on p. 58. This species, like all the other typical gibbons, is consider- 
