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Show 142 SPECIAL . EXPRESSIONS ! CHAP. v. Many years ago, in the Zoological Garden~, I placed a looking-glass on the floor before two young orang~, who as far as it was known, had never before seen one. At flrst they gazed at their own images with the most steady surprise, and often changed their point of_ vi~w. They then approached close and protruded the1r hps towards the image, as if to kiss it, in exactly the same manner as they had previously done towards each other, when first placed, a few days before, in the same room. They next made all sorts of grimaces, and_ put themselves in various attitudes before the mn-ror ; they pressed and rubbed the surfac~; ~hey placed tl:eir hands at different distances beh1nd It; looked behind it; and finally seemed almost frightened, started a little, becarne cross, and refused to look any longer. vVhen we try to perform some little action which is difficult and requires precision, for instance, to thread a needle, we enerally close our lips firmly, for the sake, I presume, of not disturbing our movements by breathing ; and I noticed the same action in a young Orang. The poor little creature was sick, and was amusing itself by trying to kill the~ flies on the windowpanes with its knuckles; this was difficult as the flies buzzed about, and at each attempt the lips were firmly compressed, and at the same time slightly protruded. Although the countenances, and more especially the gestures, of orangs and chimpanzees are in some respects highly expressive, I doubt whether on the whole they are so expressive as those of some other kinds of monkeys. This 1nay be attributed in part to their ears being immoveable, and in part to the nakedness of their eyebrows, of which the movements are thus rendered less conspicuous. When, however, they raise their eyebrows their foreheads become, as with us, transversely wrinkled. In comparison with man, their faces are CuAP. V. MONKEYS. 143 inexpress~ve, chiefly o_wing to their not frowning under any emotion of the mind-that is, as far as I have been able t~ obser~e, ~nd I carefully attended to this point. Frowning, wh1ch Is one of the most important of all the expressions in man, is due to the contraction of the corrugators by which the eyebrows are lowered and brought together, so that vertical furrows are formed on the forehead. Both the orang and chimpan- .d 18 zee are sa1 to possess this muscle, but it seems rarely brought into action, at least in a conspicuous man~er. I made my hands into a sort of cage, and placing some tempting fruit within, allowed both a young orang and chimpanzee to try their utmost to get it out; but although they grew rather cross, they showed not a trace of a frown. Nor was there any frown when they were enraged. Twice I took two ch~mpanzees .from their rather dark room suddenly into bright sunshine, which would certainly have caused us to frown; ~hey blinked and winked their eyes, but only once d1d I see a very slight frown. On another occasion, I tickled the nose of a chimpanzee with a straw, and as it crumpled up its face, slight vertical furrows appeared between th~ eyebrows. I have never seen a frown on the forehead of the orang. The gorilla, when enraged, is described as erectinO' its crest of hair, throwing down its under lip dilatin ~ . ' b Its nostrils, and uttering terrific yells. Messrs. Savage and Wyman 19 state that the scalp can be freely moved backwards and forwards, and that when the animal is excited it is strongly contracted; but I presume that 18 Prof. Owen on the Orang, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1830, p. 28. On the Chimpanzee, see Prof. Macalister, in Annals and Mag. of Nat. ~Ii.st. vol. vii. 1871, p. 342, who states that the corrugator superciUi 1s mseparable from the orbicularis palpebrarum. 19 Boston Journal of Nat. Hist. 1845-47, vol. v. p. 423. On the Chimpanzee, ibid. 1843-44, vol. iv. p. 365. |