ON THE LEMURIDjE. T&> 



If this be the case, and if it is in our power, by adopting the proper means, to 

 present the King of the Forest in all his pristine grandeur and majesty, why 

 should there be that apathy which exists on a subject, the importance of which is 

 by no one disputed. Let, then, those in whose power the remedy exists, exert 

 themselves in securing, for the ages yet to come, those blessings which our cli- 

 mate is calculated to produce, and does produce, and which we are now possess- 

 ing and enjoying ; by so doing they will receive their rich reward, in that satis- 

 faction which must invariably follow from the consciousness of being employed 

 in the benefit of our fellow-creatures — -a benefit of the highest kind — 

 * For he who guards the state, and he who plants 

 The woodland screen, anticipates alike 

 The grateful meed, a future age's love." — Tig he. 

 Presteign, Jan. 1, 1887. 



ON THE LEMURIDiE, OR FAMILY OF LEMURS. 

 (Continued from p. 13.) 

 The genus Microcebus, Geoff., contains, as far as we know at present, 

 two distinct species, which, as we shall explain, have not only been con- 

 founded with each other, but have also been referred, even by modern 

 naturalists, to genera from which they differ in many essential particulars. 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire (vide Annates du Musee, torn. 19, 1796) the two 

 species being undistinguished, places the Rat de Madagascar of Buffon, 

 which he regarded as identical with the Little Macauco of Brown and Pennant, 

 in the genus Galago. Subsequently, however, in his Cours de VHistoire Na- 

 turelle, 1834, Geoffroy established the genus Microcebus, of which the Rat de 

 Madagascar served him for the type. In the last edition of Cu vier's Regne Ani- 

 mal, we also find (see foot-note, page 109) the Little Macauco of Brown regarded 

 as a Galago, as well as the animal described by G. Fischer (in Act. de la Soc. 

 de Mosc. I. p. 24, f. I.), under the name of Galago Demidoffii. We have pre- 

 viously hinted our suspicions that the Ckeirogaleus Milii will be found to belong 

 to the genus Microcebus, but as we have never seen the specimens from which 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire took his description, we cannot positively determine. 

 With regard to the characters upon which the genus Microcebus is founded, it 

 may be observed, that they approximate more closely to those of the true Lemurs, 

 than do those of the genus Galago. In the latter genus, for instance, the ears 

 are extremely large, membranous, and capable of being folded down ; and the 

 posterior extremities are remarkably developed. The Galagos, moreover, appear 

 to be exclusively confined to Continental Africa, while the Microcebi are restricted! 

 (with the true Lemurs) to Madagascar. 



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