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Show 188 MR. G. CANDLER ON THE [Feb. 17, in habit, should be lacking in such a useful appendage as a tail. 1 think, at any rate, that it points to the fact that the apes have been developed along a line distinct from the monkeys, the earlier traces of which line are yet to be discovered. The Hoolocks are extremely shy, and it is most difficult to watch them, as they are concealed by leaves high up in the tops of the bamboo-clumps or forest trees. You may hear their cries all round you as you ride quickly along a jungle-tract, but the moment you leave the path or look up at them there is a dead silence and scarcely a leaf stirs, until, tired of waiting, you move on again. The cry of the Hoolock is a characteristic sound in the Cachar jungle. It is a very pleasing note, rising and falling in intensity, and reminding one somewhat in its rhythm of a pack of beagles giving tongue on a scent which is waxing and waning in strength, as a larger or smaller number of the band join in the chorus. It is heard chiefly in the early morning, then all through the heat of the day there is silence, but towards evening, as the sun sinks, you may hear it again. Hooloo ! ITooloo ! TIooloo ! with the accent on the Hoo syllable, is supposed to describe the sound, but it is really quite indescribable in writing. As in other species of apes, there is a special modification of the larynx, which acts as a sort of resonating-box, and helps (I suppose) to make the sound carry, as it does, long distances. There is also a peculiar arrangement of the upper aperture of the larynx, with its small and inadequate looking epiglottis, which more resembles the arrangement in birds than the leaf-like epiglottis in man. As, day after day, I have ridden through the jungle, it has seemed to me that the Hoolocks work their ground systematically in their search for food, just as the planter plucks one section of his tea to-day and another section on a distant part of the garden to-morrow. For I have found them filling the air with their cries along a particular stretch of jungle-road one day, whilst the next day not one was to be heard; then, perhaps, a week later they are back again in the same place. Living as they do in communities, they are constantly on the move, and from what we know' of their great intelligence, it seems to me highly probable that their movements are guided by very definite plans, and that very probably they have some sort of government system. There is a point about the Hoolock that strikes me as very extraordinary, and that is the fact that he cannot swim. I had been told this by both natives and Europeans, but I confess I was somewhat sceptical about it until I tried experiments myself. We put a full-grown Hoolock into a big tank in 10 feet of water. He struggled helplessly, as a boy would before he learns to swim. He sank twice, with head thrown back and arms waving frantically, and we were obliged to rescue him almost asphyxiated and choking in the most human way. |