LEMURS. 401 



rectly made, it is interesting as proving the former much further 

 extension of the baboons than we find at the present time, Cyno- 

 cephalus Atlanticus occurs in the late Pliocene or Post-Pliocene de- 

 posits of Algeria. 



The lemurs, or half-monkeys, constitute a well-differentiated 

 group of the Primates, differing, indeed, in so many essential points 

 of structure from the type of this order as to have induced many 

 naturalists to elevate them to an order apart by themselves, the 

 Lemuroidea or Prosimiss. Their non-simian affinities are at once 

 with the Insectivora and Ungulata, to which they appear to be 

 united by many connecting ties, both recent and fossil. Upwards 

 of fifty more or less clearly defined (recent) species, representing a 

 dozen or more genera, have been referred to this group, more than 

 one-half of which, embracing all the typical lemurs of the genera 

 Lemur (some fifteen species), Hapalemur, and Lepilemur, are abso- 

 lutely confined to the island of Madagascar, where they inhabit the 

 forest region. The indrises (Indris, Propithecus), which are like- 

 wise confined to the Madagascan region, comprise some of the 

 largest of the lemurs, Indris brevicaudatus measuring upwards of 

 two feet in length. 



The sub-family of the galagos numbers probably not less than 

 twenty species, distributed under the two genera Chirogaleus and 

 Galago, the former of which is restricted to Madagascar, while the 

 latter inhabits the scattered wooded tracts of the interior of the 

 African continent, from Senegambia to Abyssinia, and southward 

 to Natal ; no species is known from Madagascar. All the Asiatic 

 lemurs, if we except the very remarkable tarsier (Tarsius spectrum), 

 the type of a distinct family, which inhabits some of the larger isl- 

 ands of the Malay Archipelago (Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes) and the 

 Philippines, and which differs from the lemurs proper, apart from 

 other general characters, in the large eyes and unusual elongation of 

 the tarsal elements of the foot, belong to the sub-family of the lories. 

 They constitute a limited group of small nocturnal animals, desti- 

 tute of a tail, and distinguished, as far as their habits are concerned, 

 by their exceedingly slow movements. Hence they are frequently 

 termed the ' ' slow lemurs. " Of the two Oriental genera, Nyctice- 

 bus, the typical slow-lemur, is distributed over Cochin China, 

 Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and the larger islands of the adjoining 



2 D 



