HABITS.--The Wau-Wau--the Malay name for this Gibbon--is one of the first of the Quadrumana that makes its presence known to the traveller in Java, when he reaches its upland forest regions. In the evening, just about sundown, and more especially in the early morning commencing before sunrise and finally ceasing when the sun is above the tops of the trees, he will be surprised by a sudden outbreak of what appears to be now the loud plaintive wailings of a crowd of women, now the united howling of a band of castigated children. The present writer's first acquaintance with this charming genus of Monkeys was made among the Kosala hills in Western Java, and it will ever remain with him as one of many most pleasant recollections of a long tropical sojourn. Their "woo-oo-ut--woo-ut--woo-oo-ut--wut-wut- wut--w[)u]t-w[)u]t-w[)u]t," always more dolorous on a dull heavy morning previous to rain, is just such a cry as one might expect from the sorrowful countenance so characteristic of the species of _Hylobates_. The Wau-Wau has a wonderfully human look in its eyes; and it was with great distress that the writer witnessed the death of the only one he ever shot. Falling on its back with a thud on the ground, it raised itself on its elbows, passed its long taper fingers over the wound, gave a woeful look at them and at his slayer, then fell back at full length--dead--"saperti orang" (just like a man), as his Malay companion remarked. He kept in captivity for a short time a specimen which was brought to him by a native, and it {157}became one of the most gentle and engaging creatures possible; but when the calling of its free mates reached its prison house, it used most pathetically to place its ear close to the bars of its cage and listen with such intense and eager wistfulness that it was impossible to retain it in durance any longer. It was accordingly set free on the margin of its old forest home. Strange to say, its former companions, perceiving perhaps the odour of captivity about it, seemed to distrust its respectability, and refused to allow it to mingle with them. Amid the free woods we may hope that this taint was soon lost and that it recovered all its pristine happiness. In general habits it in no way differs from the other species of _Hylobates_ already described.