ORANG UTAH, MALAY, lit, will man, is the name by which the species of Pithecus (Simi,' of Linnrcus) are known to the people of Borneo and Sumatra, and also to Europeans. They live on the low flat plains of those great islands where the forests are densest and moat sombre. The Bengal Asiatic Society's museum received from Sir James 13rooke of Sarawak, seven skeletons of large adult orang-outangs; and Mr. Blyth distin guished from them the species Pithecus Brookci or Mina rambi, P. satyrus or Mine pappan, P. curtus or 'alias chapin ? P. morio or Mins kassar, P. Owenii. The different species of these tuiiinala do not appear to inhabit the Barad district ; and P. Owenii represCnts, in the southern part of the great island, the P. mono of the northern part. Jerdon names only Simla satyrus and Simla morio as from Borneo and Sumatra.
P. satyrus of Geoffroy (Simla satyruk of Linna3us) is the red orang. The muzzle is large, elongated, somewhat rounded anteriorly ; forehead sloping backwards, slight supraciliary ridges, but strong sagittal and lamhdoidal crests. Facial angle, 30°. Auricles small ; twelve pairs of • ribs ; bones of the sternum in a double alternate row. Arms reaching to the ankle-joint. No ligamentum terse in the hip-joint. Feet long and narrow ; hallux not extending to the end of the metacarpal bone of the adjoining toe ; often wanting the ungual phalanx and nail. Canines very large, their apices extending beyond the intervals of the opposite teeth. Intermaxillary bones anchylosed to the maxillaries during the second or permanent denti tion. Height under five feet. It is an inhabitant of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
The orang-outang occupies the third place from the highest in the animal kingdom, the gorilla being first, and the chimpanzee second. The most striking feature of the orang is its great size and general resemblance to man. The chest, arms, and hands are especially human-like in their size and general outline. Each individual differs
as widely from his fellows, and has as many facial peculiarities belonging to himself, as can be found in the individuals of any unmixed race of human beings. The faces of the more intelligent orange are capable of a great variety of expression, and in seine the exhibition of the various passions which are popularly supposed to belong to human beings alone is truly remarkable.
The nest of the orang-outang consists of a quantity of leafy branches broken off and piled loosely into the fork of a tree. Ho usually selects a small tree, and builds his nest in the top; or he builds his nest low down, often within 25 feet of the ground, and seldom higher than 40 feet. It is usually 2 feet in diameter, and quite flat on the top. The branches are merely piled crosswise, precisely as a Mall would build one for himself were he obliged to pass a night in a tree top, and had neither axe nor knife to cut branches. Upon this leafy platform the orang lies 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. An orang probably uses his nest several nights in succession, but never after the leaves become withered and dry, no doubt for the reason that the bare branches afford an uncomfortable resting-place.
The orange of Borneo fight a great deal. All the old ones are covered with scars inflicted by the formidable canine teeth, which these animals use wholly for defence and offence, since they are fruit-eating, and hence do not employ them in chewing. Their effort is always to seize the arm or head of an enemy, and draw the fingers or lips into their mouth, instead of advancing their own heads to bite.—Mr. Blyth in Ben. As. Soc. Journal; Jerdon's Mammalia ; Mr. TV. T. Ilornaday in Proceedings Amer. Association.