"The rude _hut_ which they are stated to build in trees, would be more properly called a seat or nest, for it has no roof or cover of any sort. The facility with which they form this nest is curious, and I had an opportunity of seeing a wounded female weave the branches together and seat herself within a minute." (_Sir James Brooke._) "The Orang usually selects," writes Mr. Hornaday, "a small tree, a sapling, in fact, and builds his nest in its top, even though his weight causes it to sway alarmingly. He always builds his nest low down, often within twenty-five feet of the ground, and seldom higher than forty feet. Sometimes it is fully four feet in diameter, but usually not more than three, and quite flat at the top. The branches are merely piled crosswise. I have never been able to ascertain to a certainty, but it is my opinion that an Orang, after building a nest, sleeps in it several nights in succession, unless he is called upon to leave its neighbourhood." In this nest he sleeps during the night or lies spread out on his back during the day, with his hands and feet grasping the nearest branches. The food of the Orang-Utan--whose eating-time is during the middle of the day--consists of leaves and nuts, especially of the durian, the rambutan, and the mangosteen. The Orang-Utan is of a very shy and uncertain disposition. If captured when full-grown, it is wild and ferocious; when {179}young it is easily trained; but never lives in captivity to attain maturity. When attacked and hard driven by human enemies, and it gets to close quarters with them, it can be a formidable and dangerous antagonist, and has been known to fatally injure its assailants. It will rarely, unprovoked, attack a man. "In one case," as Dr. A. R. Wallace has recorded, "a female Mias on a durian-tree kept up for at least ten minutes a continuous shower of branches and of the heavy spined fruits as large as 32-pounders, which most effectively kept us clear of the tree she was on. She could be seen breaking them off and throwing them down with every appearance of rage, uttering at intervals a loud, pumping grunt, and evidently meaning mischief." They fight and defend themselves with their hands, and appear to seize and bite each other's fingers. Many of the specimens shot in the forest of Borneo have lost one or more of their fingers or toes; and present scars on the face (especially on the lips) and bodies from the teeth of their antagonists. "When wounded he betakes himself to the highest attainable point of the tree, and emits a singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, which at length deepen into a low roar, not unlike that of a panther. While giving out the high notes, the Orang thrusts out his lips into a funnel shape; but in uttering the low notes he holds his mouth wide open, and at the same time the great throat bag, or laryngeal sac, becomes distended." (_Huxley._)