Gibbon

(Zool.) The common name of the genus Hylobates, order Simiadæ, including apes, or taille monkeys, natives of the East Indies. They are nearly allied to the orangs and chimpanzees, but are of more slender form, and their arms so long as almost to reach the ground when they are placed in an erect posture; there are also naked callosities on the buttocks. The canine teeth are long. The G. are inhabitants of forests, their long arms enabling them to swing themselves from bough to bough, which they do to wonderful distances, and with extreme agility. They cannot, however, move with ease or rapidity on the ground. The conformation of the hinder extremities adds to their difficulty in this, while it increases their adaptation to a life among the branches of trees, the soles of the feet Fig. 1155.- GIBBON, ( H. lar. ) being much turned inwards. None of the gibbons are of large size. The common gibbon ( H. lar ), (Fig. 1155,) is black, but the face is commonly surrounded with a white or gray beard. The white-handed gibbon ( H. Albimana ,) native of Sumatra, is black, with the four hands white. Another white gibbon is entirely white, except the face and hands, which are black.