HABITS.--"I first met with this species in Upper Burma," Dr. Anderson relates, "in passing through the magnificent defile of the Irawaddy, below Bhamo, where the river is enclosed by high hills, covered with dense forest, for about fifteen miles of its course. It was early morning, and the air was resonant with the loud cries of this Gibbon; large troops were answering each other from the opposite banks, and the hills echoed and re-echoed the sound. The Hoolock is also common on the Kakhyen hills, on the eastern frontier of Yun-nan; and there, too, my attention was called to them at daybreak, when they passed up from their sheltered sleeping-ground in the deep and warm valleys to heights of about 4,000 feet. We, in the middle distance, first caught a faint murmur of voices, but {163}every minute it became more and more distinct, till at last the whole troop rushed past in a storm of sound, vociferating _Whoko! whoko!_ and in a few more minutes their cry was heard far up the mountain-side. Considering that their progress is almost exclusively arboreal, the rapidity with which they make their ascent is wonderful. "Associated with this arboreal habit of progression, we find that _H. hoolock_ derives its nourishment from leaves, insects, eggs, and birds, the essential features of sylvan life." It also eats the leaves of _Ficus religiosa_, the aquatic Convolvulus (_Ipomoea reptans_), and the brilliant red flowers of the _Canna indica_. It "has a marked partiality," continues the same naturalist, "for Spiders and their webs, which become tangled in its long slim fingers, and Orthopterous insects are regarded by it with special favour, and over which it utters its peculiar cry of satisfaction. Eggs also are to it a _bonne bouche_. It was first in the Calcutta gardens that I become aware of the circumstance that small living birds were devoured by it with a method and eagerness which has left no doubt in my mind that this species, in its natural state, must be a scourge to the feathery tribe." The Hoolock lives in large flocks as a rule, keeping chiefly to the hill forests. Sometimes, however, an old male may be discovered living by himself. They move chiefly by means of their long arms, by which they swing themselves for prodigious distances from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. They descend hill-sides at a surprising pace, their descent being accomplished by grasping bamboos or branches that bend beneath their weight, and allow them to drop until they can seize the ends of other bamboos or branches lower on the slope and take another mighty {164}swing downwards. They also ascend with great rapidity, swinging themselves from tree to tree. (_Blanford._)