This Animal Was Almost Identical In Size And Appearance
With The One I Had Obtained At Semabang, And Was The Only Other
Male Specimen Of The Simia Morio Which I Obtained.
It is now in
the Derby Museum.
I afterwards shot two adult females and two young ones of
different ages, all of which I preserved. One of the females,
with several young ones, was feeding on a Durian tree with unripe
fruit; and as soon as she saw us she began breaking off branches
and the great spiny fruits with every appearance of rage, causing
such a shower of missiles as effectually kept us from approaching
too near the tree. This habit of throwing down branches when
irritated has been doubted, but I have, as here narrated,
observed it myself on at least three separate occasions. It was
however always the female Arias who behaved in this way, and it
may be that the male, trusting more to his great strength and his
powerful canine teeth, is not afraid of any other animal, and
does not want to drive them away, while the parental instinct of
the female leads her to adopt this mode of defending herself and
her young ones.
In preparing the skins and skeletons of these animals, I was much
troubled by the Dyak dogs, which, being always kept in a state of
semi-starvation, are ravenous for animal food. I had a great iron
pan, in which I boiled the bones to make skeletons, and at night
I covered this over with boards, and put heavy stones upon it;
but the dogs managed to remove these and carried away the greater
part of one of my specimens. On another occasion they gnawed away
a good deal of the upper leather of my strong boots, and even ate
a piece of my mosquito-curtain, where some lamp-oil had been
spilt over it some weeks before.
On our return down the stream, we had the fortune to fall in with
a very old male Mias, feeding on some low trees growing in the
water. The country was flooded for a long distance, but so full
of trees and stumps that the laden boat could not be got in among
them, and if it could have been we should only have frightened
the Mias away. I therefore got into the water, which was nearly
up to my waist, and waded on until I was near enough for a shot.
The difficulty then was to load my gun again, for I was so deep
in the water that I could not hold the gun sloping enough to pour
the powder in. I therefore had to search for a shallow place, and
after several shots under these trying circumstances, I was
delighted to see the monstrous animal roll over into the water. I
now towed him after me to the stream, but the Malays objected to
having the animal put into the boat, and he was so heavy that I
could not do it without their help.
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