The first and last in order of the anthropoid apes is the gibbon; he is much smaller in size, greater in variety, and more active than any other of the group. His habitat is in the south-east of Asia; its outline is vaguely defined, but it includes the Malayan Peninsula and many of the contiguous islands east and south of it. The skeleton of the gibbon is the most delicate and graceful in build of all the apes, and in this respect is as far superior to man as man is to the gorilla, except for the long arms and digits. He is the only one of the four that can walk in an erect position, but in doing this the gibbon is awkward, and often uses his arms to balance himself, sometimes by touching his hands to the ground, or at other times raising them above his head or extending them on either side. The length of them is such that he can touch the fingers to the ground while the body is nearly if not quite erect. In the spinal column he has two and sometimes three sections more than man. His digits are very much longer, but his legs are nearly the same length in proportion to his body as those of man. He has fourteen pairs of ribs. The gibbon is the most active, if not the most intelligent, of all apes. He is more arboreal in habit than any other. Many wonderful stories are told of his agility in climbing and leaping from limb to limb. One authentic report credits one of these apes with leaping a distance of forty-two feet from the limb of one tree to that of another. Perhaps a better term is to call it swinging rather than leaping, as these flights are performed by the arms. Another account is, that one swinging by one hand propelled himself a horizontal distance of eighteen feet through the air, seizing a bird in flight, and alighting safely upon another limb with his prey in hand. There are several of this ape known, the largest of which is about three feet high, but the usual height is not more than thirty inches. The voice of one species is remarkable for its strength, scope and quality above all other apes. Most of the members of this genus are endowed with better vocal qualities than other animals. This ends the list of the man-like apes, and next in order after them come the monkeys, but we will deal with that subject more at length at some future time.