Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/27

Rh them to and fro, for the purpose of securing his tottering equilibrium: the soles of his feet, however, were flat, and this circumstance, united to the greater distance and freer movements of his hind-legs, gave his gait a waddling motion, similar to that of human beings whose feet are affected with the same deformity. In many of his other actions; Tommy likewise approximated nearly to the human species. He was, without exception, the only animal we have ever seen, that could leap, or jump upon his hind-feet, like man; and this feat he often performed, both on the floor of his cage, and in descending from his tree, or from the bars of his cage, up which he often climbed for the purpose of seeing over the heads of the spectators. He frequently indulged, too, in a kind of rude stamping dance, perfectly similar to that of a child three or four years old, only that it was executed with greater force and confidence. All this arose from the uninterrupted spirits and buoyancy natural to the infant mind; he was at all times cheerful, lively, and perpetually in motion, from sunrise to sunset, either Jumping, dancing, or cantering about his cage, romping and playing with the spectators, or amusing himself by looking out at the window.

"He did not often climb up his tree, unless at the command of his keeper; he appeared, indeed, to be upon the whole but an indifferent climber, particularly when compared with the Orang-outan, and generally preferred the level surface of the ground; whether it was that his tree was not properly constructed, or that he was too heavy and corpulent: but from his manifest awkwardness in performing this action, and his