To what species, then, did Mafuca belong? A cross between the gorilla and the chimpanzee was often suggested at the time. I was myself inclined to take this view, and it was advocated by C. Vogt in his contemporary treatise on the subject, as well as in the magnificent work which has lately appeared, remarkable for the beauty of its illustrations and the genius of its style.[100] H. von Koppenfels heard much of such crossings when he was on the Ogowe, nor is their occurrence by any means impossible, and indeed they have been directly observed among other species of apes while in confinement. Koppenfels also affirmed that he had shot two such cross-bred animals, which were associating with a troop of gorillas. The traveller sought to kill others of the troop, but, when creeping on hands and knees through the thick bushwood, he was constrained to retreat by the attacks of some stinging ants (_Anomma arcens_). The skins and skeletons of the supposed cross-breds were brought to the Natural History Institution in Dresden. A. B. Meyer observed that the traveller was mistaken in these instances, and that the remains sent by him to Europe were undoubtedly those of chimpanzees.[101] It must be remembered that Koppenfels was a clever hunter, and on the whole a good observer of nature, but that he was no zoologist, and may have been mistaken as to the nature of the animals he had shot. At the same time the possibility of the existence of such cross-bred animals cannot by any means be disputed. Meyer must be convinced that his assertion cannot be generally accepted: “Any consideration of the question as to cross-breeding is like fighting with windmills--that is, making difficulties where none exist.” If the trophies of von Koppenfels’ hunting are merely chimpanzees, it is, at any rate, very interesting to learn that these animals were found in the company of gorillas. We must hope that scientific travellers will in future feel bound to devote their special attention to this question. In the end of June, 1876, von Falkenstein, who was attached to Güssfeldt’s Loango Expedition, brought from Chinchoxo to Berlin a female chimpanzee, Paulina, which varied a good deal in countenance from the chimpanzees we have commonly seen. The ears projected widely in a lateral direction, the supra-orbital arches were prominent, the nose was wide, the colour of the skin dark and blending into russet. I have seen chimpanzees, both living and dead, which reproduced these characteristics of Paulina with more or less distinctness. I have nothing to urge against those who wish to regard such individuals as the representatives of a special variety. I would only warn them against the risk of accepting as such the species entitled by Du Chaillu and Wyman, _Troglodytes Koolo-Kamba_, which appears to be ill-established.