FAMILY OF LEMURS. V 



confessing, that the necessity of separating the genus Propithecus from that of 

 Indris is very problematical ; nor should we do so, were it not for the great 

 authority of the talented naturalist, now, alas ! no more, who instituted it. 



Setting aside, for the present, a consideration of the Long-tailed Indri, we may 

 observe, that the Short-tailed Indri (I. brevicaudatusj, like the rest of the 

 genuine Lemurs, is a native of Madagascar, where it is said to be frequently 

 trained by the natives for the chase, or rather, perhaps, for taking birds, but of its 

 history little is correctly known. The word Indri is said to signify, in the 

 Madagascar language, a " Man of the Woods." — Of all the Lemurs, it is the most 

 anthropoid in appearance, owing to the size and form of the head, the develope- 

 ment of the hinder extremities, and the absence of a tail. In length it exceeds 

 three feet ; its general colour is blackish-brown, with the exception of the muzzle, 

 abdomen, and inside of the arms and thighs, which are inclined to grey, and of 

 the crupper, which is white, and covered with thick woolly fur ; the hair on the 

 other parts of the body is silky, long, and abundant. A unique specimen 

 brought by Sonnerat, exists in the museum at Paris. The genus Propithecus, 

 to which we have just adverted, was characterized from a fine specimen of a 

 Lemuridous animal, presented by C. Telfair, Esq., to the Zoological Society. 

 The generic characters are as follows : — Muzzle shorter than in the Lemurs 

 generally ; ears short, rounded, and concealed in the fur. Hind limbs far exceed- 

 ing the anterior pair in length. Index finger abbreviated. Tail long and well 

 furred. Incisors, as in the Indri -5-. Molars, number not ascertained, the two 

 first on each side above bicuspid, the third elongated with two tubercles on its 

 outer edge, the fourth, as the third. The first molar below with a single point, 

 the second and third presenting several tubercles. 



Species. — Diadem Propithecus ( Propithecus diadema, Benn.) — " The face is 

 nearly naked, with short blackish hairs about the lips, and equally short yellowish 

 white hairs in front of the eyes. Above the eyes, the long, silky, waved, and 

 thickly set hairs, which cover the body, commence by a band of yellowish white 

 crossing the front, and passing beneath the ears to the throat. This is succeeded 

 by black, extending over the back of the head and neck, but becoming freely 

 intermingled with white on the shoulders and sides, the white gradually increas- 

 ing 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, at the upper part, is of the slaty- grey of the sides, below 

 which it is pale fulvous ; the hands are black, with the exception 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 



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