THE EAR IN ANTHROPOIDS The chimpanzee has never been observed to indulge in this expression of the emotions. To call the gorilla untamable is not perhaps quite fair to the gorilla. These beasts live so short a time in captivity, so far as experiments have shown, that there has been but little time to put the belief to the proof. The gorilla possesses the requisite physical basis for educatability. The brain is on the average, says Dr. Keith, larger than that of the chimpanzee, though the highest records among the chimpanzees beat the lowest record among gorillas. As to its complex structure, the brain of both differs in no essentials from the human brain, and the ancient controversy about the "hippopotamus minor," as Kingsley called it, has been laid to rest long since. Blackness of visage does not distinguish the gorilla, as was once thought when every chimpanzee with a black face was gravely suspected of being a gorilla. or the result of a mésalliance between the one and the other. But the smaller and more refined-looking ear of the gorilla, somewhat like that of the eastern Anthropoid, the orang-utan, contrasts with the big ears of the chimpanzee, and is on the whole an external mark of difference between them. Any one can observe for himself that the human ear is liable to great variations. and some persons are chimpanzee-like, while others. come nearer to the gorilla in this feature. The general structure of the two apes leads to the conclusion that the gorilla is the older type, and the chimpanzee the more modified. But this is not wholly true, for the chimpanzee has retained the undoubtedly more primitive aboreal mode of life to a fuller degree than the gorilla, whose likenesses in this respect to man are not so much an indication of special relationship as a parallel divergence from the normal, so far as apes are concerned. These adaptations to an arboreal life have left their mark upon the outward appearance of both anthropoids. The hand of the chimpanzee is long and thin; it is in fact convertible into a hook for hanging on to branches ; in the gorilla the hand is shorter and the fingers are webbed at the base as in the human hand, to which it bears considerable resemblance. It has been well said that if the dictum, "Ex pede Herculem" is true, so is the further evolution of that observation, "Ex calce hominem." Now the gorilla has a better heel than the chimpanzee; and this again is associated with the frequent travels of that animal upon the ground in a more or less walking posture. Certain muscles tell the same tale. Indeed we may fairly come to the conclusion that the gorilla is much nearer to that mysterious and at present totally unknown creature, which first crossed the narrow line dividing the ape from the man, than is the chimpanzee. Whether the famous Pithecanthropus erectus of Dubois, whose bony fragments were found in Java, is the "missing link" or not, cannot be decided; but it is unquestionably a suitable candidate for that position so far as the top of the skull enables us to form a judgment. Chimpanzees have been divided into more than one kind, and such names as Anthropopithecus calvus, aubryi, kulukamba, have been given to these varieties. The variety which has the most claim to be regarded as an independent form is that represented by the notorious Sally, The species, if species it be, was brought home by du Chaillu, and that specimen is now in the British Museum at South Kensington. Sally's stuffed skin adorns Mr. Rothschild's museum at Tring, while her brain reposes in the University Museum at Oxford. The gorilla, too, has been lately subdivided. In fact, it used to be thought that both apes were limited in range to the gloomy forests of the Gaboon. But it is now well known, thanks to Emin Pasha and others, that the chimpanzee goes much farther east, and so in all pro SOME CHARACTERS OF THE ORANG bability does the gorilla. It is possible, therefore, that we may believe in at any rate racial varieties of these apes. The gorilla has got its name under false pretences. It is certainly not the ape seen to pick up and hurl stones by the Carthaginian Hanno, author of the Periplous. That creature was probably a baboon, which does live in herds and can throw stones. THE ORANG UTAN The orang, whose scientific name is Simia satyrus, and whose vernacular Malayan name generally used by us signifies Man of the Woods, is, like the gibbon, an Asiatic kind of anthropoid ape. It is Bornean and Sumatran in range; and in those great islands of the East frequents steamy forests. The orang is a large and heavily built ape, with a melancholy countenance, and a very protuberant abdomen, a feature of all the Anthropoids except the specially athletic gibbons. Its tawny yellow colour is well known, and it has been. pointed out that while the black chimpanzee and gorilla share their forests with equally black man, the yellow Malay pursues the yellow orang. As with the anthropoid apes generally, the examples of orangs exhibited at the Zoo are invariably young creatures, and thus do not show all the salient characters of the huge ape of Borneo. For in the fully developed male the face is broadened by a callous expansion at the sides, which is eminently characteristic, and gives to the ape a remarkable look distinctive of it. The orang is more peaceable than its relatives in Africa, and is said to rarely dispute matters with man. Those at the Zoo seem to have always a friendly attitude of mind, which seems to fit in with their slow ways and somewhat sad demeanour. At times, however, the orang can lose its temper; Mr. Wallace reports a continued POSITION OF HYLOBATES attack made by an orang upon a tree,consisting of showers of hard fruits with which it assiduously pelted its pursuers. Structurally it may be noted that the orang differs from the other anthropoid apes in its small and delicately shaped ears, much like those of the gorilla, in the small size of, and absence of a nail upon, the great toe. It is curious, too, that this ape has its femur loose in the socket by reason of the absence of a ligament binding that bone to the hip bone. This may account for its cautious and deliberate movements when moving from branch to branch of its native trees. This ape builds a kind of nest in trees, which is not a permanent dwelling place, but merely a place of temporary sojourn. It is built of a number of branches laid together and covered with leaves, and is about a yard and a half across. THE HOOLOCK The Hoolock and its immediate relatives, the other members of the genus Hylobates, or gibbons, stand a little below the chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orang, which complete the list of living anthropoid apes. In intelligence they are not inferior at all; indeed they seem to possess the greater sharpness often incidental to small size. But structurally the gibbons form a link, not very perfect, with the lower standing Catarrhine monkeys. To begin with, there are in these anthropoids at least traces of the ischial callosities so characteristic of the Old World monkeys. The canine teeth, large enough it is true in the old male gorilla, are still larger proportionately in the Hoolock, and thus more closely approach such teeth in lower mammals. The brain is rather simpler, but perhaps this is merely a matter of smaller size than of affinity to the macaques and such like, SPECIES OF GIBBONS The tail is wanting, as in the highest apes and in man ; and the vermiform appendix is present as in the same. The lower monkeys generally (but not always) possess a tail. So much then for the chief points in the inward and outward structure of the Hoolock and its congeners which help to fix its place in the Simian system. The hoolock, or at least some form of gibbon, is almost sure to be on view in the New Ape House at any given time. It will probably also appeal to another sense, that of hearing; for this gibbon, like others, has a piercing though not unpleasant voice by means of which it utters a series of cries which have been variously rendered Hooloo" and "Whoko." It prefers climbing to walking; and when it does walk, which in nature. appears to be practically never, it walks on two legs as a rule, and divaricates its big toe like unbooted man. Its extraordinarily long arms are used in this method of progression as balancing poles to aid in its waddling run. Placed on a tree the gibbon has no equal among the monkey tribe. It swings from bough to bough "with the unerring accuracy of a finished trapeze performer." It is an odd thing that this gibbon at any rate cannot swim, and naturally, therefore, never takes to the water on its own account. Monkeys, as a rule, can, and do voluntarily, set out to swim, crossing rivers in their marches, but the gibbon never; and thus its range is often limited by great rivers such as the Irrawaddy. In this dislike of water it plainly resembles man, who is almost the only other creature that cannot swim by the light of nature, but requires teaching. The specimens of gibbon that have been on view at the Zoo are numerous, and are of many species. Quite recently there was on view an example of the very rare Hainan gibbon, an ape which frequents the island of Hainan, its easterly limit as a genus. Another rarity is the Siamang, a gibbon |