only the immature bird of the Falco Sancti Johannis, GMEL. In addition to this, the visits of Audubon to the breeding places of many other of our rare birds in the extreme North and South of our country, enabled him to investigate their habits more fully, and to describe them more correctly, than has ever been done before. If the inquiry be made, what prospect there will be for the continuation of this work, in case the author should not live to complete it, I am happy to say, that its publication is secured, beyond the fear of accidents. The drawings of the birds for the whole work are nearly completed, the materials for their history are collected and recorded, and there exists sufficient acquirement, in the members of his interesting and talented family, to carry on the work. Let the literary world but award to Audubon the justice which he merits, let the public continue to be indulgent and liberal, and this work cannot fail to prove a very important acquisition to the Natural History of America, nor to reflect the highest credit on the liberality of the British public, that has hitherto so efficiently aided him in the publication of it, nor to establish an abiding monument to the fame of its author; whilst it must continue to be selected as the chosen companion of those who delight in the contemplation and investigation of the phenomena of nature, in one of the most interesting departments of her works. ART. III.-DESCRIPTION OF A GIBBON. BY WINSLOW LEWIS, JR. M. D. THESE animals have been placed, by recent systematic naturalists, as a sub-genus of the Ourangs, with which they were confounded by the earlier writers. But their organization demonstrates much more recession from the great standard, man, than the latter, more especially in the elongation of the anterior extremities, and their dental peculiarities. Illiger, a Prussian anatomist, has designated them under the term HYLOBATES, to express their habits as inhabitants of the forests, and some remarkable additions have been made to the genus, so that five species have been described by Lesson in his supplement to Buffon,* viz. H. Syndactylus, the Siamang. H. Lar, the Great or Black Gibbon. H. Leuciscus, Moloch or Cinereous Gibbon. H. Unko, the Ounko. To which number Dr. Harlan, of Philadelphia, added another which he termed Cóncolor.† A Gibbon which I had an opportunity of dissecting, presenting differences from any of the above, I have been induced to detail the results of my investigation. And as we possess in our cabinet, a finely prepared skeleton of * Histoire Naturelle Générale et Particulière des Mammifères et des Oiseaux découvèrts depuis 1788, jusqu'à nos jours. Par R. P. Lesson, Vol. III. p. 362. t Journal of the Academy of Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. v. p. 229. what Dr. Jeffries, of this city has described as an ourangoutang, and as I have lately made a dissection of another ourang which has been exhibited in this country alive; such advantages as these, have given a fair opportunity for more correct deductions by comparison. This animal, a female, was purchased at the same time with a male, from the menagerie of a Rajah at Calcutta, who said that they were obtained from the vicinity of the Himmalay Mountains, and had not long been in his possession. They were held in great estimation by him for their rarity. Both were purchased by the same gentleman. The female died in forty days after leaving Calcutta, from a bowel complaint, and the male, being similarly affected, survived her but a fortnight. These animals were reserved, very gentle, and uncommonly cleanly as to their bodies and their food. They evinced great attachment for each other, as particularly appeared during the sickness of the female; the other holding her in his arms as a parent does her infant! and after her death he immediately refused sustenance, and, as before stated, shortly died. The body of the female was preserved in arrack, but the other, unfortunately, was thrown away. Their food was rice. Their only manner of walking was on their posterior or inferior extremities; the others being raised upwards to preserve their equilibrium, as ropedancers are assisted by long poles in their feats. Their progression was not by placing one foot before the other, but by simultaneously using both, as in jumping. The * Geoffroy St. Hilaire regards the animal described by Dr. Jeffries as a young individual of the Pongo of Wurmb, and the great length of the spinous processes of the cervical vertebræ, the want of the flat nails on the extremities, the length of the arms, and the same "habitat," seem to justify his opinion. animal arrived in a good state of preservation, and was dissected as minutely as was practicable, in the warm month of July. The hair was uniformly of a dirty brown color over the whole body and extremities. None on the face, ears, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, or on the callosities of the buttocks. Face and hands were black. The back very straight and flat, the bases of the scapulæ approximating closely. The abdomen not protuberant. Two pectoral mammæ, terminated by long nipples. The thoracic and abdominal cavities corresponded to the human organization. The right lung had its three lobes. This is here particularly mentioned, because in the one examined by Daubenton he found four lobes in the right lung. The appendix vermiformis was as in man. The pathological appearances were, enlargement of the mesenteric glands, and ulcerations on the mucous surface of the intestines. The facial angle of Camper was 60°. No cheek pouches. The ears were very similar to the human, being furnished with the helix, or outer border. Callosities small. This animal was well advanced in age, as indicated by the obliteration of the sutures, and by the existence of the whole series of teeth. The os frontis is nearly on a line drawn horizontally from the superciliary arches, which arches are largely developed. The cavities of the orbit are very deep and round, and the external orbitar processes project very much laterally. No mastoid or styloid processes. No traces of the existence of an intermaxillary bone. The teeth are thirty-two. The upper incisors rather oblique, but the lower perpendicular. The four superior are of about an equal size, the edges blunt. The external incisors are worn down by the action of the lower canines on their outer edges. The upper canines are enormously projecting, extending nearly to the mental foramina when the jaws are closed; their anterior edges worn by the lower canines. No lateral or grinding motion of the jaws can be effected by bringing them together, in consequence of the length of these upper canines. The two next are false molars. All the molars small. The four inferior incisors are small, of an uniform size, and have sharp, cutting edges. The canines project upwards as far as the alveolar processes of the upper jaw. The first false molars are worn away externally by the upper canines, and terminate in single points. There are twenty-five vertebræ. The six lower cervical are peculiar as to their transverse processes, which do not extend as far as the articulating processes laterally, and they also project downwards. The atlas is by much the widest. The spinous processes are short, (as seen in the second plate,) and do not bifurcate; and these processes throughout the whole column, from the atlas to the coccyx, form a perfectly straight line. Thirteen dorsal vertebræ. The lumbar have some peculiarities. The superior articulating processes project upwards, especially the first, which terminates in a very sharp point. The transverse processes of the fourth and fifth are large, flat, and extend outwards. (See plate I.) Only one bone to the coccyx. The sacrum consists at present of but one piece, though some faint traces remain of a former division of this bone into three. The ribs are thirteen in number, very convex. The chest capacious and round. The first and second ribs are articulated to the manubrium of the sternum. The five next to the second piece. Six false ribs, four of which are floating. The sternum has three bones. The two first receive the cartilaginous terminations of the seven superior ribs, while the third, which is an inch in length, is unconnected with the ribs, and has affixed to it, a broad, ensiform appendix. |