4 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



then on the toes (shock modified by bones and liga- 

 ments of digits and plantar arch). 



A curious anatomical feature of the tarsier seems 

 to have hitherto escaped the notice of naturalists. 

 On examining the inside of the ear in a museum 

 specimen one notices a number of transverse ridges 

 situated on the upper part of the pinna. These 

 probably indicate bundles of muscular fibres which 

 in the allied galagoes are so powerful that the 

 animal can actually fold up its ear as a sailor reefs a 

 sail. A careful dissection of the human subject 

 indicates that vestiges of these fibres exist also in 

 man: they are limited to a few bundles of tissue — 

 transverse muscle of anatomists- — and are of no 

 functional importance. 



The colour of the tarsier varies. As a rule the 

 general body hue is brownish fawn paling to 

 yellowish grey below; a reddish tinge ornaments 

 the forehead and cheeks, while a blackish ring round 

 each orbit accentuates the weird expression of the 

 eyes. Some individuals, however, are chestnut, 

 others dusky brown. The Bancan tarsier, founded 

 on a specimen obtained in the woods near the 

 Jeboos tin mines by Dr. Horsfield in i8 13-14 was, 

 as pointed out by Temminck, only a young individual 

 (yearling) of the Tarsms spectrum. Temminck 

 presented to Cuvier a specimen of the tarsier pre- 

 served in alcohol ; the mammal catalogue of the 

 Paris Museum, published in 1851, mentions another 



