A Naturalist in Borneo

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A NATURALIST IN BORNEO CHAPTER I MAMMALS The most interesting mammal in the island of Borneo is, undoubtedly, the large Anthropoid Ape, Simla satyrus,1 for both in anatomy and habits it shows so many resemblances to the highest type of creation, man himself, that we are justified in believing both man and ape to have sprung from a common stock in dim ages past. The trivial names whereby this ape is known to European zoologists, Orang, Orang-Utan and Orang Utang or Outang, are rather unfortunate, for the first is Malay for man, the second means man of 1 Changes of the scientific names of animals, especially mammals, have been so frequent and numerous during the past ten years, that only specialists are able to recognize the species under their new names. The practice reached the height of absurdity when Snnta satyrus was solemnly re-named Pongo pygmaHts. By this ridiculous application of a Bantu negro name for the Chimpanzee to a Malayan ape a storm of long-suppressed protest was raised, and a committee of zoologists is now deciding what names of animals are to remain unaltered. It was high time that such a step should be taken, for who knows if Dr. Smellfungus and Professor Dryasdust will not proclaim that the name Homo sapiens should be altered ? But perhaps sapiens is a misnomer when applied to these pedants. the woods, and the third .means debtor. Malays never think of applying any of these names to the ape; they have their own name for it?Maias, and by this name the animal will be styled in this chapter. The Maias is fortunately still abundant in Sarawak, but it is very local in its distribution, being found only up the Simunjan, Batang Lupar, and Rejang Rivers. A specimen was once recorded from the upper waters of the Sarawak River, but it had eviden...