LORIS, OR SLOW-PACED LEMUR. 159 



mur, like that of a squirrel, or a greater degree of displeasure 

 by a peevish cry, especially in winter, when he was often as 

 fierce, on being much importuned, as any beast of the woods. 

 From half an hour after sunrise to half an hcur before sunset, 

 he slept without intermission rolled up like a hedgehog; and 

 as soon as he awoke, he began to prepare himself for the 

 labours of his approaching day, licking and dressing himself 

 like a cat ; an operation, which the flexibility of his neck and 

 limbs enabled him to perform very completely : he was then 

 ready for a slight breakfast, after which he commonly took a 

 short nap ; but, when the sun was quite set, he recovered all 

 his vivacity. His ordinary food was the sweet fruit of this 

 country ; plantains always, and mangoes during the season ; 

 but he refused peaches, and was not fond of mulberries, or 

 even of guaiavas ; milk he lapped eagerly, but was contented 

 with plain water. In general he was not voracious, but never 

 appeared satiated with grasshoppers ; and passed the whole 

 night, while the hot season lasted, in prowling for them : when 

 a grasshopper, or any insect, alighted within his reach, his 

 eyes, which he fixed on his prey, glowed with uncommon 

 fire ; and, having drawn himself back to spring on it with 

 greater force, he seized the victim with both his fore-paws, 

 but held it in one of them while he devoured it. For other 

 purposes, and sometimes even for that of holding his food, 

 he used all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequently 

 grasped with one of them the higher part of his ample cage, 

 while his three others were severally engaged at the bot- 

 tom of it ; but the posture, of which he seemed fondest, 

 was to cling with all four of them to the upper wires, his body 

 being inverted; and in the evening he usually stood erect for 

 many minutes, playing on the wires with his fingers, and 

 rapidly moving his body from side to side, as if he had found 

 the utility of exercise in his unnatural state of confinement. 

 A little before day- break, when my early hours gave me fre- 

 quent opportunities of observing him, he seemed to solicit my 

 attention ; and, if I presented my finger to him, he licked or 

 nibbled it with great gentleness, but eagerly took fruit when 

 I offered it ; though he seldom ate much at his morning re- 

 past : when the day brought hack his flight, his eyes lost 

 their lustre and strength, and he composed himself for a slum- 

 ber of ten or eleven hours. 



" My little friend was, on the whole, very engaging; and, 

 when he was found lifeless, in the same posture in which he 

 would naturally have slept, I consoled myself with believing, 

 that he had died without pain, and lived with as much plea- 

 sure as he could have enjoyed in a state of captivity." 



