Liberia ^ 



Asiatic connections, and probably descend from the more 

 generalised European lemurs of the Eocene period. The 

 galagos as a sub-fnmily have a remarkable feature in their 

 skeleton which reappears in that aberrant long-limbed Asiatic 

 lemur, the tarsier : this is the elongation of the heel and 

 ankle bones. The calcaneum (the principal bone of the heel) 

 and the navicular bone of the ankle are produced into the 

 form of rocis growing side by side. 



The meaning of this peculiar development of the bone at 

 the heel-end of the foot may bear some relation to the extra- 

 ordinary jumping powers of the galagos. In other works which 

 I have written on Africa I have referred to this agility on their 

 part, on which sufficient emphasis has never been laid by other 

 writers describing the life habits of the African galagos. The 

 species which is found in Liberia and other parts of West 

 Africa [Galago demidoffi) is especially remarkable for this power 

 of leaping relatively great distances into the air, upwards, 

 horizontally, and downwards. I have had one of these galagos, 

 tame, sitting on my hand and perhaps drinking milk out 

 of a spoon. Suddenly it observed a buzzing bluebottle-fly 

 on a window-pane three or four yards distant. Like a flash, 

 the little animal has left my hand, has appeareci on the window, 

 caught the bluebottle, and leapt back again, if not on to my 

 hand, at any rate on to the adjoining table or chair. The 

 leaps of the galago remind one irresistibly of the beginnings 

 of flight in such animals as the bat. The Bats, though 

 originating from primitive Insectivora, were not distantly related 

 to the primal types of the Anthropoidea, of which the nearest 

 representatives at the present day are the Lemurs. The be- 

 ginnings of the Bats developed enormous hands, with long, 

 skinny fingers, like those of that aberrant lemur, the " Aye-aye," 

 and no doubt leapt after their insect prey with outstretched 



686 



