NOTES ON THE SLOW LEMURS. 



By Marcus Ward Lyon, Jr., 



Assistant Curator, Divisio7i of Mammals. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following notes are not intended as a critical revision of the 

 Slow Lemurs, and the conclusions here arrived at can not be considered 

 as linal, but in stud3nng- the specimens of the genus Niicticehii><'^' in the 

 collection of the United States National Museum some interesting facts 

 have been l)rought to light which seem worth recording. 



For a consideration of the generic and specific names for the Slow 

 Lemurs, the reader is referred to the Revision of the Genus N3'cticebus, 

 by Stone and Rehn.'^ All of the forms there recognized are here con- 

 sidered as valid and two others are described. Messrs. Stone and 

 Rehn had but eight specimens at their disposal, but now, due to the 

 activities of Dr. W. L. Abbott in the Malayan region, 1 have liefore 

 me 28 specimens, 8 of which are all from one locality in western 

 Borneo. Even this seemingh^ abundant material is altogether too 

 scant for arriving at definite conclusions. Here I wish to express 

 my obligations to Mr. Witmer Stone of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences for the use of two specimens from Sumatra and one 

 from Java. 



Most writers have placed considerable weight on color as a specific 

 character, often from lack of material overlooking the wide range of 

 variation in specimens from a given locality. The only attention 



«Dr. Menegaux, of the Paris Museum, in a letter to Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, jr., 

 dated June 6, 1906, writes: "I have looked up that which you asked me concerning 

 Bradicebus. The word is not cited in Magasin encydop. 1795, classification des Mam- 

 miferes by Geoff roy and Cuvier (in vol. ii), although Geryais, apropos of the article 

 on mammals, in the Diet. Pittoreaque d" Hist. Nat. et de plunom. de la nature, vol. iv, 

 p. 617, says textually 'Geoffroy and Cuvier published together in vol. vi (?) of the 

 Magasin encydoj)t:dirpie a classification of mammals, which we transcribe entire: 

 . . . Cucang, Bradicebus; Khoyak, Chirosciurus; Tarsier, Macrotarsus.' . . . 

 The citation of Gervais is given incorrectly." Translation. 



'>Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1902, pp. 136-141. 



PocEEDiNQS U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXI— No. 1494. 



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