Arrival at “ the Bush.” 
45 
bele country. Mr. Thompson, a missionary to 
Sherbro (“ The Palm Land,” chap, xiii), has, 
however, these words :—“ It is said of the chim¬ 
panzees, that they build a kind of rude house of 
sticks in their wild state, and fill it with leaves ; 
and I doubt it not, for when domesticated they 
always want some good bed, and make it up 
regularly.” 
Thus I come to the conclusion that the Nchi'go 
Mpolo is a vulgar nest-building ape. The bush- 
men and the villagers all assured me that neither 
the common chimpanzee, nor the gorilla proper 
{Troglodytes gorilla), “ make ’im house.” On 
the other hand, Mr. W. Winwood Reade, writing 
to “ The Athenaeum” from Loanda (Sept. 7, 1862), 
asserts,—“ When the female is pregnant he (the 
gorilla) builds a nest (as do also the Kulu-Kamba 
and the chimpanzee), where she is delivered, and 
which is then abandoned.” And he thus confirms 
what was told to Dr. Thomas Savage (1847) : 
“In the wild state their (i.e. the gorillas’) habits 
are in general like those of the Troglodytes niger, 
building their nests loosely in trees.” 
