OCR Text |
Show 26 Dr. Salomon Muller, an accomplished Dutch naturalist, who lived for many years in t h e E1 a tern rchipelago, and to ]~IG . 8.- A Gibbon (H . pilcatua), after \Volf. the results of whose per onal experience I hall frequently have occasion to refer state that the Gibbons are true mountaineers, loving ~he lopes and edges of the hills, 27 though they rarely ascend beyond the limit of the fig-trees. All day long they haunt the tops of the tall trees ; and though, towards evening, they descend in small troops to the open ground, no sooner do they spy a man than they dart up the hill-sides, and disappear in the darker valleys. All observers testify to the prodigious volume of voice possessed by these animals. According to the writer whom I have just cited, in one of them, the Siamang, "the voice is grave and penetrating, resembling the sounds goek, goek, goek, goek, goek ha ha ha ha haaaaa, and may easily be heard at a distance of half a league." While the cry is being uttered, the great membranous bag under the throat which communicates with the organ of voice, the so-called u laryngeal sac,'' becomes greatly distended, diminishing again when the creature relapses into silence. J\1. Duvauce], likewise, affirms that the cry of the Siamang may be heard for miles-making the woods ring again. So Mr. Martin* describes the cry of the agile Gibbon as u overpowering and deafening " in a room, and u from its strength, well calculated for resounding through the vast forests." Mr. Waterhouse, an accomplished musician as well as zoologist, says, "The Gibbon's voice is certainly much more powerful than that of any singer I ever heard." And yet it is to be recollected that this animal is not half the height of, and far less bulky in proportion than, a man. There is good testimony that various species of Gibbon readily take to the erect posture. Mr. George Bennett, t a very excellent observer, in describing the habits of a male Hylobates syndactylus which remained for some time in his possession, says; u He invariably walks in the erect posture when on a level surface; and then the arms either hang down, enabling him to assist himself with his knuckles; or what is more usual, he keeps his arms uplifted in nearly an erect position, with the hands pendent ready to seize a rope, and • " Man and Monkic ·," p. 423. t Wanderings in New South Wales, Vol. II. chap. viii. 1834. |