Henry Ogg Forbes

“ The Gorilla has the power of moving the scalp freely forward and backward—as Man in many instances has the power of doing—and, when enraged, of corrugating his brows and erecting the hair over the central bony crest "so as to present an indescribably ferocious aspect." He is capable of emitting a "terrific yell that resounds far and wide through the forest"; and when shot his cry is like that of a human being in sudden and acute distress. The Gorilla is very ferocious and never runs away, as the Chimpanzee does ”

“ Habits.—The Orang-utan, the "forest-living Man" of the Malays, and the "Mias" of the Bornean natives, lives solitary in the leafy tops of the trees in the forests, except at the pairing season. A female is generally accompanied by one of her progeny, sometimes by two, the one always an infant, and the other a more or less grown but immature individual of a previous birth; for her young—of which she has only one at a birth—do not shift for themselves before they are approaching two years of age. At what age they attain maturity is unknown, but it is probably not before twelve to fifteen years. ”

“ These Apes also build resting-places, not far from the ground, like the Orangs, composed of twigs and sticks on the branch of a tree or a crotch, in which the female and her young take refuge for the night, the male placing himself on guard beneath.
They seldom make an unprovoked attack on the natives wandering in the forest; on the contrary, they are peaceably disposed animals, glad to get out of the way of danger or possible enemies. ”

“ Except among the Gibbons, the vertebral column shows in the sacral region indications of that curve—or concavity in the back between the two convexities of the neck and loins—which is one of the distinctive characters of the human skeleton. The processes for the interlocking of the vertebræ, which are large in the lower Anthropoids, are much reduced in the Man-like Apes, and become inconspicuous in Man.
The breast-bone is flat, and resembles that of Man, and, in all, except the Orang, is composed of two bones. The arm-bone is often shorter than the fore-arm. ”

“ The Simiidæ—the most intelligent of the animal kingdom—are all diurnal animals, and essentially arboreal. Many of the members of the family have, when walking, a tendency to tread on the outer edge of the foot, turning, therefore, the toe inward on account of the free motion which is possible between the various bones of its ankle, whereas, in the human foot, these bones are more solidly bound together. ”

“ It was first in the Calcutta gardens that I become aware of the circumstance that small living birds were devoured by it with a method and eagerness which has left no doubt in my mind that this species, in its natural state, must be a scourge to the feathery tribe."
The Hoolock lives in large flocks as a rule, keeping chiefly to the hill forests. Sometimes, however, an old male may be discovered living by himself.
They move chiefly by means of their long arms, by which they swing themselves for prodigious distances from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. ”

“ On the ground the Orang does not move, according to Sir James Brooke, so fast as to preclude a man keeping up with him easily through a clear forest. "The very long arms, which, when he runs, are but little bent, raise the body of the Orang remarkably, so that he assumes much the posture of a very old man bent down by age, and making his way along by the help of a stick." ”

“ The food of the Orang-Utan—whose eating-time is during the middle of the day—consists of leaves and nuts, especially of the durian, the rambutan, and the mangosteen.
The Orang-Utan is of a very shy and uncertain disposition. If captured when full-grown, it is wild and ferocious; when young it is easily trained; but never lives in captivity to attain maturity. When attacked and hard driven by human enemies, and it gets to close quarters with them, it can be a formidable and dangerous antagonist, and has been known to fatally injure its assailants. It will rarely, unprovoked, attack a man. ”

“ The wrist (carpus) contains but eight bones, as there is no central (os centrale) bone, a character in which it agrees with Man and the Chimpanzee, but differs from the Orang.
The volume of the brain in the largest Gorilla rarely exceeds 341⁄2 cubic inches, which is only half the capacity of the human skull. It may be safely said that an average European child, of four years old, has a brain twice as large as that of an adult Gorilla. The weight of a healthy human brain never falls below 31 ounces; that of the largest Gorilla has probably never reached 21. ”

“ In the brain of the Gorilla the cerebellum can be seen between the deep longitudinal fissure which separates the two halves of the cerebrum. It agrees in this with the Orang and Anthropopithecus calvus—the latter exhibiting even a greater divergence of the cerebral lobes.
The young male Gorilla differs much from the adult; its central cranial crest is less prominent than the occipital ridge for the neck muscles.
The female is much smaller than the male, but the cheeks are relatively broader; the cranial crests and ridges are less strongly marked, and the canines shorter and less powerful. ”

“ The stomach is very similar to that of Man, and so are the digestive and reproductive organs. The round ligament, attaching the head of the thigh-bone into its pelvic socket, is present, and restricts the flexibility of the hind-limb of the Chimpanzees, compared with that of the Orang. Its presence, however, while acting somewhat less favourably in regard to the climbing capacities of these animals, whose habits are less essentially arboreal than the Orangs', beneficially assists them in walking, affording them a firmer support on the ground. ”

“ In the evening, just about sundown, and more especially in the early morning commencing before sunrise and finally ceasing when the sun is above the tops of the trees, he will be surprised by a sudden outbreak of what appears to be now the loud plaintive wailings of a crowd of women, now the united howling of a band of castigated children. ”

“ The Chimpanzees inhabit forest regions, and feed on wild fruits in the woods, and the products of cultivated gardens, not rejecting, when they can capture it, animal food. They live in separate families, or in limited communities of small families mixed together, but each male lives with his own single female. They are more arboreal than the Gorilla, but much less so than the Orangs. In many districts they seem to live on the ground. ”

“ Its expression of countenance is most intelligent and often very human; but in captivity it generally wears a sad and dejected aspect, which quite disappears in its excited moods. With what elegance and gentleness it takes with its delicate taper fingers whatever is offered to it! ”

“ The present writer's first acquaintance with this charming genus of Monkeys was made among the Kosala hills in Western Java, and it will ever remain with him as one of many most pleasant recollections of a long tropical sojourn. Their "woo-oo-ut—woo-ut—woo-oo-ut—wut-wut-wut—wŭt-wŭt-wŭt," always more dolorous on a dull heavy morning previous to rain, is just such a cry as one might expect from the sorrowful countenance so characteristic of the species of Hylobates. The Wau-Wau has a wonderfully human look in its eyes ”

“ The opening for the passage of the spinal cord is situated in the posterior third of the base of the skull, and not, as in Man, nearly in the centre.
The vertebræ of the neck, back, and loins number the same—seventeen—as in Man; but there are thirteen parts of ribs instead of twelve. The neck-vertebræ have long spines which contribute to the thickness of the neck. The curvature, characteristic of Man, in the lumbar region of the vertebral column of the young Gorilla, is more developed than in the Chimpanzee, and in both are earlier developed than in Man. ”

“ When climbing, the power of turning in the sole is, as is evident, of the greatest advantage to the Ape. Their food is chiefly vegetable; a few species exhibit slight carnivorous tendencies.
"Of the various genera of the Simiidæ, the Gibbons are most remote from Man. The Orangs come nearest in the number of the ribs, the form of the cerebral hemispheres, and certain other characters of the brain and skull; but they differ from him much more widely in other characters, especially in the limbs, than the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee do. ”

“ The uterus and other structures connected with the reproductive system resemble those in the human subject. The length of gestation varies probably in the different genera, and is unknown in many of the species. The period for which the young are suckled by the mother lasts about six months. "The proportions of the limbs to one another and to the body do not sensibly change after birth; but the body, limbs, and jaws enlarge to a much greater extent than the brain-case." ”

“ The gentle and caressing way in which it clasps me round the neck with its long arms, laying its head on my chest, and watching my face with its dark brown eyes, uttering a satisfied crooning sound, is most engaging. Although it often inflates its laryngeal sac, it rarely gives utterance to more than a yawn-like noise or suppressed bark ”

“ As far as I could ascertain, the natives of the southern portion of Palembang and of the Lampongs were quite ignorant of the animal, except as a name. In Borneo it inhabits the low forest-covered swamplands between the coast and the interior mountains, from the north of the island, round the west, southern, and eastern coasts, as far as the Mahakkam river, if not round the entire coast, as is most likely. In the dry season they retire into the depths of the forest. In the fruit season they come nearer to the coast, while at the height of the rains they frequent the river banks. ”

“ Its great-toe and thumb lack the long flexor muscles which are present in Man and in the Chimpanzees.
"Of all Apes, the Orang has the brain which is most like that of Man; indeed, it may be said to be like Man's in all respects, save that it is much inferior in size and weight, and that the cerebrum is more symmetrically convoluted and less complicated with secondary and tertiary convolutions." ”

“ Yuen: male black, female white; like a Macaque but larger, with the two fore-arms exceedingly long. Climbs to tree-tops and runs among them backwards and forwards with great agility. If it falls to the ground, it remains there like a log. Its delight is in scaling trees, as it cannot walk on the ground. ”

“ Mr. Martin gives the following account of a specimen which lived in the Zoological Gardens in London many years ago:—"Its attitudes were as varied as can be imagined, its actions slow and deliberate; excepting, indeed, on one or two occasions when it wished to follow its keeper, who had opened the door of its cage; even then it did not bound from branch to branch like a Monkey, but stretching out its arms, and grasping the branches within its reach, it swung itself onward, and so descended to the floor, along which it hobbled awkwardly and unsteadily. ”

“ Habits.—The Siamang is gregarious, frequenting the great forest-trees from 200 to 300 feet above the sea up to 3,000 or 4,000 feet.
I made the acquaintance of this species in Southern Sumatra, and during my stay in that island had various opportunities of observing many of them in their homes. It was not uncommon to come suddenly on a colony of them both in the forest and among the tall isolated outliers, when they happened to be covered with fruit. ”

“ The legs are very short and bowed at the ankles; the long and narrow foot, which is articulated obliquely to the leg, is longer than the hand and (except in the Gorilla) is longer than in any other Ape. ”

“ The form of the skull varies very greatly in the Simiidæ. It is, however, always longer than broad. In its frontal region it is never so rounded and elevated as in Man. The roof of the eye-sockets projects into the fore part of the brain-cavity, and considerably reduces its capacity. The pre-maxillary bones (carrying the incisor teeth) are relatively more distinct and much larger than in Man, "the sutures separating them from the maxillary bones remaining visible after the adult dentition has been obtained." ”