OCR Text |
Show 32 1'. k Geschiedenis der N edcrlandschc overover de Natuur IJ e ) "b Dr Salomon Miiller and zeesche Bezittingen (1839·45 ' hyt I .have to say upon this .Dr. Schlegel, and I shall base w a FIG. 9.-An adult male Orang-Utan, after Muller and S hlcgcl. b. ect almost entirely on their statements, adding, here and tshue rJe , particulars of interest from the wn·t l•n gs of .B r ooke ' Wallace, and others. 'f 33 The Orang-Utan would rarely seem to exce.ed four feet in height, but the body is very bulky, measuring two-thir~s of the height in circumference.* The Orang-Utan is found only in Sumatra and Borneo, and is common in neither of these islands-in both of which it occurs always in low, fiat plains, never in the mountains. It loves the densest and most sombre of the forests, which extend from the sea-shore inland, and thus is found only in the eastern half of Sumatra, where alone such forests occur, though, occasionally, it strays over to the western side. On the other hand, it is generally distributed through Borneo, except in the mountains, or where the population is dense. In favourable places, the hunter may, by good fortune, see three or four in a day. Except in the pairing time, the old males usually live by themselves. The old females, and the immature maJes, on the other hand, are often met with in twos and threes; and the former occasionally have young with them, though the pregnant females usually separate themselves, and sometimes remain apart after they have given birth to their offspring. The young Orangs seem to remain unusually long under their mother's protection, probably in consequence of their slow growth. While climbing, the mother always carries her young • The largest Orang-Utan, cited by Temminck, measured, when standing upright, four feet ; but he mentions having just received news of the capture of an Orang five feet three inches high. Schlegel and Miiller say that their largest old male measured, upright, 1.25 Netherlands" el ;" and from the crown to the end of the toes, 1.5 el ; the circumference of the body being about I el. The largest old female was 1.09 el high, when standing. The adult skeleton in the College of Surgeons' Museum, if set uplight, would stand 3 ft. 6-8 in. from crown to sole. Dr. Humphry gives 3 ft. 8 in. as the mean height of two Orangs. Of seventeen Orangs examined by Mr. Wallace, the largest was 4 ft. 2 in. high. from the heel to the crown of the head. Mr. Spencer St. John, however, in his "Life in the Forests of the Far East," tells us of an Orang of" 5 ft. 2 in., measuring fairly from the head to the heel,'' 15 in. across the face, and 12 in. round the wrist. It does not appear, however, that Mr. St.John measured this Orang himself. D |