21 



freely intermingled with white on the shoulders and sides, the white 

 gradually increasing backwards so as to render the loins only 

 slightly grizzled with black. At the root of the tail the colour is 

 fulvous, which gradually disappears until the extreme half of the 

 tail is white with a slight tinge of yellow. The outer side of the 

 anterior limbs is at the upper part of the slaty grey of the sides, 

 below which it is pale fulvous ; the hands are black, with the ex- 

 ception of tufts of long fulvous hairs at the extremities of the thumb 

 and fingers, extending beyond and covering the nails. The outer 

 sides of the hinder limbs, after receiving a tinge of fulvous from the 

 colour surrounding the root of the tail, are of a paler fulvous than 

 the anterior limbs : this becomes much deeper on the hands, which 

 are fulvous except on the fingers, where there is a very considerable 

 intermixture of black, the terminal tufts, equally long with those 

 of the anterior hands, being, as in them, fulvous. The under-sur- 

 face is*white throughout, with the exception of the hinder part of 

 the throat, where it is of the same colour with the sides of the body. 



The hairs are generally long, silky, waved, erect, and glossy. 

 On the crupper they are shorter and more dense, offering a sort of 

 woolly resistance. On the tail they have the general character of 

 those of the body, but are considerably shorter. 



On the anterior hands the thumb is slender; it is placed far back, 

 and is extremely free ; its length is 1-$. inch, the extremity of its pen- 

 ultimate phalanx ranging slightly beyond the end of the metacar- 

 pal bone of the index. The index is 1-f inch in length ; its extre- 

 mity ranges with the middle of the penultimate phalanx of the se- 

 cond finger : the length of the second finger is 3 inches : that of the 

 third finger is 3^-. The length of the carpus and metacarpus is 2 

 inches. 



On the hinder hands the thumb is very strong, placed forwards 

 and ranging with the fingers : it is 2 inches long : the index is 1\ 

 inches, the pointed nail extending \ an inch beyond : the length of 

 the 2d finger is Si : of the tarsus and metatarsus 3 inches. 



The length of the body and head, measured in a straight line, is 

 1 foot 9 inches ; of the tail, 1 foot 5 inches. The anterior limbs, 

 exclusive of the hands, measure 7| inches in length from the body ; 

 the posterior, 15|. 



The muzzle is shorter than in the Lemurs generally ; the distance 

 from the anterior angle of the orbit to the tip of the nose (J^ inch) 

 being equal to that between the eyes. 



The ears are concealed within the fur. They are of a rounded 

 form. Their length is 1 inch ; their breadth 1J. 



From Lemur, the genus to which it most nearly approaches, Pro- 

 pithecus is essentially distinguished by the number and form of its 

 teeth, and especially by the form of the incisors of the upper jaw, 

 which constitute apparently a regular series, a structure unknown in 

 any other Lemuridous animal. This difference, striking as it is, is how- 

 ever more of an apparent than a real deviation from the type of the 

 family, inasmuch as a tendency to dilate laterally towards their 

 cutting edges is observed in the upper incisors of Lemur, and it is 



