Characters.—Face, ears, hands, and feet dark-reddish flesh-colour, or more rarely of a blackish-brown colour; in general the colour of the hair is wholly black, except on the upper and lower lips, where it is white and very short, and in the region of the buttocks, where it is washed with reddish-brown.
Hair on the body straight and silky, with coarser hair interspersed; on the top of the head it lies smoothly to each side, away from a median line; round the face it forms bushy whiskers, extending down into a slight beard; it encroaches on the brow, leaving only a triangular central space naked; on the upper and lower lips are short, bristly hairs; the rest of the face naked and much wrinkled; on the shoulders, the back, and the hips, the hair is longer than elsewhere; the back of the hands and feet are thinly haired, the fingers and toes nude. The margin of the ears is often folded in for the greater part of its length.
The skin of the body is of a peculiar light, yet muddy, flesh-colour, sometimes verging on brown. Brownish or black spots on many parts of the body seem to vary in different individuals.
The expression of the face is grave, but less melancholy and pre-occupied than in the Orangs.
The weight of the brain in A. troglodytes varies from 6½ to 63⁄5 ounces.
This celebrated Man-like Ape has been known, by vague report at least, for nearly three hundred years. The earliest clear account of its existence, however, is derived from the "Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell, of Leigh in Essex, sent by the Portugals prisoner to Angola, who lived there and in the adioining regions neere eighteene yeares." It was first published in 1613 in "Purchas his Pilgrimage," and later more fully in 1625, in "Purchas his Pilgrimes."[[3]] Here it is related that in the Province of Mayombe, "which is nineteen leagues from Longo along the Coast, the woods are so covered with baboones, monkies, apes, and parrots that it will fear any man to travaile in them alone. Here are also two kinds of monsters, which are common in these woods, and very dangerous. The greatest of these two monsters is called Pongo, in their language, and the lesser is called Engeco." The Pongo turned out to be the Gorilla, the description given by the old prisoner Battell proving to be wonderfully accurate. The lesser monster, the Engeco, is equally certainly the Chimpanzee. The first record of a specimen actually seen in Europe is in 1641, and is noticed by Tulpius in his "Medical Observations," and the earliest scientific description of a Chimpanzee—a young specimen of A. troglodytes—is that of the anatomists Tyson and Cowper, published by the Royal Society in 1699. It was, however, not till 1835, that the osteology of a full-grown specimen was described, when Sir Richard Owen's memoir appeared, and shortly after a very detailed account of its habits was given to the world by Dr. Thomas Savage, the missionary to whom we have already referred (p. [184]), followed by a further anatomical investigation of its structure by Dr. Wyman, of Boston, U.S.A.
Distribution.—This species is found over the greater part of Tropical Central Africa, and its range is co-extensive with that given above for the genus. Loango and the Gaboon, however, are the districts from which this Chimpanzee has chiefly been imported into Europe.
Habits.—The more characteristic habits of the common Chimpanzee have already been given under the description of the genus.
Its food consists of all sorts of forest fruits, and especially of the young shoots of the Scitamineæ, or ginger-plants.
The Chimpanzee can move the skin of its head, as the Gorilla does, but without causing the erection of the hair, which the Orang and the Gorilla are both able to accomplish. It can also to some considerable extent wrinkle its forehead, if disappointed or pleased, as when refused anything, or if tickled, when in the latter case it also utters a chuckling sound like that of smothered laughter, draws back the corners of its mouth, and wrinkles its eyelids.