ORANG-OUTANGS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5932, 1 March 1880, Page 6

ORANG-OUTANGS.

(From Professor Homaday’s Address to the Saratoga Convention.) In Borneo the orang-outang inhabits that wide belt of low, forest-covered swamp which lies between the sea-coast and the mountain ranges of the interior, extending entirely around the western half of the island. Last year, while on a collecting expedition for Professor H. A. Ward, I had ample opportunity to study the habits of the orang-outang in its native forests. I visited Borneo in August, 1878, for the sole purpose of obtaining specimens of the Bornean simla, and to study the different species. I visited the territory of Sarawak, and for - two and a half months devoted my entire time to hunting the orang along tho Biver Sadong and its tributary, the Simujau. This whole region is one vast swamp, covered everywhere with a dense growth of lofty virgin forests. Daring the fruit season, from the middle ot January to - May 1, the food of the orang is thedurion, mongasteen and rambnton. During the hot months of May, June, and July, they retire far into the depths of the forests, and are extremely difficult, to find. But during the season of the heaviest rains, from August to November, when tho forests are flooded, the orangs are found in the vicinity of the rivers. I soon found that the only way to reach them would be to paddle up and down the rivers and watch, for them in the tree-tops.^ Near the source of the Simujau River, and beyond the last Dyak village, we found great numbers of old orang nests, and some which were quite new. The nest consists of a quantity or leafy branches broken off and piled loosely into the fork of a tree. The orang usually selects a sapling and builds his nest in its top, even though his weight causes it to sway alarmingly. He often builds his nest within twenty-five feet of the ground, and seldom higher than forty feet. Sometimes it is fully three feet, in diameter, but. usually not more than two, and quite flat on - the top. There is no weaving together of branches. In short, the orang builds a nest precisely as a man would build one for himself were he obliged to pass the night in a tree-top, and had. nothing, to cut branches with. X have seen one or two such nests of men in the forest, where the builder had only his bare hands to work with; and they were just as rudely constructed, ot just suoh materials and in about the same position as the average orang-nest. Upon this leafy platform the orang hes prone upon his back, with his long arms and short, thick legs thrust outward and upward, firmly grasping, while he sleeps, the nearest large branches within his reach. On several occasions I surprised animals upon their nests, and once I had an opportunity to watch an orang while it constructed its resting-place. He never uses a nest after the leaves become withered and dry, and no doubt because the bare branches are not comfortable,'to lie upon. I never saw or heard of any house-building by orangoutangs. We found the animals most numerous along the Simujau river, near its source. Our manner of hunting was to make trips up and down the river in our boat, paddling slowly and silently along, keeping a careful lookout. Sometimes in rounding a bend in the river we would come full upon a huge, black-faced, red-baired animal, reposing quietly or feeding, I aimed to shoot them through the chest, and thus either kill them at once or disable them bo that they would be unable to get away. On several occasions 1 succeeded in killing a large specimen with a aitigle bullet. It would at all’ tunes have been an easy matter to have shot them through the head, but this would have ruined the skulls. As soon as an orang was fired at, if not-killed at once, he would begin climbing away with all haste. I think we may fairly consider the orange the most helpless of all qaadruana. Owing to the great weight of their bodies and the peculiar structure of their hands they can run nimbly along even the latest branches, and never dare to spring from one tree to tho next. The weight of the adult male ranges from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty pounds. Owing to the disproportionate shortness of his legs, his progress depends mainly upon his long, sinewy arms, and very often he goes swinging through a tree-top by their aid alone. Upon the ground orangs are the picture of the most abject helplessness, and in their native forest they ore very seldom known ,to descend to the earth. They are utterly incapable of standing fully erect without touching the ground with their hands, and for them to be represented in drawings and museums as standing erect is contrary to nature. .