THE SPECTRE TARSIER 5 



(male) specimen from the collection of the Stadt- 

 holder of Holland. 



The tarsier was first so named by Buffon, in 

 allusion to the elongation of the tarsus or ankle. 

 He, however, compared it to the jerboa which, 

 although leaping over the ground much as a tarsier 

 might do, has the lower extremities constructed, as 

 we have seen, on a totally different plan : the 

 calcanear and navicular bones (especially the latter) 

 of the jerboa are mere fragments. Pennant likewise 

 styled the tarsier the " woolly gerboa." MM, Geoff- 

 roy St. Hilaire and Cuvier published a memoir on 

 the tarsier in the Magasin Encyclop^diqzie for 1795. 

 In 1824 we find the tarsier figured in Dr. Horsfield's 

 "Zoological Researches," the plate being drawn by 

 William Daniell from a young specimen in the East 

 India Company's museum and formerly the property 

 of Sir Stamford Raffles. Apparently the artist 

 contented himself with reproducing the likeness of 

 the actual dried specimen before him, without endea- 

 vouring to "restore" its probable appearance during 

 life. One finds this scrupulous over-exactness 

 common in old works of natural history, since the 

 drawings of the majority of the earlier artists seem 

 to have been made directly from specimens mounted 

 in the not very successful style of the ante-Victorian 

 taxidermists. A tarsier preserved in spirits of wine 

 was presented by Sir Stamford Raffles to the Zoo- 

 logical Society : it had been obtained in Sumatra, 



