TO NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



share this feeling, they are but few as compared 

 with the native population, hence less likely to 

 meet with the tarsier. Lastly, even if interested in 

 Zoology, few of these few Europeans are naturalists 

 trained to minute observation and in the right 

 methods of searching for and collecting speci- 

 mens. One thus understands the rarity of this little 

 lemur in most museums, and its total absence from 

 European Zoos; perhaps one should rather wonder 

 that so many skin-specimens have been obtained. 

 Small marvel is it that even the professional dealers, 

 who by means of agents abroad supply specimens 

 for collections, are frequently unable to obtain 

 examples of a specially-desired animal, even after 

 persevering efforts. Bullock's famous museum took 

 seventeen years to collect, and cost him ^30,000. 

 The Derby Museum at Liverpool was the fruits 

 of sixty years' patient harvesting. Our own 

 National Collection is the "long result of time," 

 so also that of the Jardin des Plantes, the 

 Senckenberg Museum at Frankfort ; so indeed with 

 all. The little tarsier is one of the most interesting 

 of museum desiderata, for its aberrant structure and 

 quaint appearance rank it high amongst nature's 

 curiosities. Staring eyes, elfin face, stilted ankles, 

 sweeping tail; it would be difficult to find a more 

 extraordinary little creature, whether in or out of a 

 story-book. 



