THE AYE- AVE. 



73 



The natives regard him as an enchanted animal and 

 stand in great awe of him. 



Jagor tells us about his captive Tarsiers as follows: 

 " I had the opportunity of purchasing two Spectre 

 Tarsiers. I was assured in Luzon, that these 

 strange, pretty little animals inhabited only Samar. 



LITTLE GALAGO LEMUR. This little creature is a native 



of Madagascar. Its well-formed head and ears, long tail and sym- 

 metrical limbs, of which the hinder ones are the longest, are brought 

 out in the picture. It accumulates fat around its tail and in different 

 parts of its body upon which it subsists during the dry season, when 

 it coils itself up in a hole in a tree and practically hibernates. {Mi- 

 crocebus myoxinus.) 



My first pet had to go hungry for some time, as he 

 scorned vegetable food, and I could not procure 

 Grasshoppers at once. He looked very funny when 

 I used to feed him. He would then stand on his 

 two long, thin legs and his tail, and turn his round 

 head, furnished with two huge yellow eyes, first one 

 way, then another, looking for all the world like a 

 lantern on a tripod. By degrees he would succeed 

 in focusing his eyes on the proffered object ; then 

 would stretch out his arms like a child, quickly seize 

 his prey and deliberately devour it. 



In the daytime he was sleepy, dull and cross when 

 disturbed ; at dusk he awakened and his pupils di- 

 lated. At night he moved about noiselessly and 

 rapidly, and generally sideways. He was easily 

 tamed but died soon after I got him. A second pet 

 of the same group also lived but a short time. 



THIRD FAMILY: Leptodactyla. 



About a hundred years ago the traveler Sonnerat 

 received two animals from the western coast of 

 Madagascar, animals of whose existence nobody 

 had as yet been aware. Even on the opposite coast 

 they were entirely unknown ; at least the natives 

 assured Sonnerat that they had never seen such crea- 

 tures. They exhibited great astonishment and their 

 exclamation, "Aye, Aye!" was the name the natu- 

 ralist chose for his newly-discovered animals. 



The Aye-Aye brought to Europe by Sonnerat re- 

 mained for a long time the only known specimen, 

 and his description, dated 1782, was the only source 

 of information about the rare animal. Naturalists 

 had begun to think the species had died out, when 

 De Castelle proved the contrary in 1844. This trav- 

 eler had the opportunity of procuring a living young 

 Aye-Aye, which he did, and he destined it for the 

 Parisian Jardin des Plantes. Unfortunately the ani- 

 mal died before reaching Europe, but its skin and 

 skeleton came into the possession of the Parisian 

 Museum, and it was proved that it belonged to the 

 same family as Sonnerat's Aye-Aye. The two speci- 

 mens were the only ones known till 1862. Then the 

 Zoological Society of London received the glad 

 news that two " Barefingered Animals" {Leptodac- 

 tyla) — that was the name science had given them in 

 the meantime — had been caught in Madagascar and 

 were on their way to Regent's Park. One of them 

 reached the Zoological Gardens alive, the other in 

 alcohol. Later a few more specimens followed, three 

 of which were purchased by the Berlin Museum. 



LARGE-EARED GALAGO LEMHR. This picture ac- 

 curately shows the characteristic features of this animal. The 

 great, hairless ears, the] trge eye-, the claw on the index finger, 

 the well-formed limbs that give Mm ins great agility, as well as 

 the remarkably long tail, are all brought out with fidelity. K'/V- 

 iicnus galag ) 



Then it was that naturalists were enabled to prop- 

 erly classify the Aye-Aye and give it a fixed posi- 

 tion in their systems. 

 The Aye-Aye a Since the researches of Owen and 

 Distinct Group of Peters the Aye-Aye (C/itromys mad- 

 the Half-Monkeys. dgascariensis\ has 'been regarded as 

 forming a distinct group by itself among the Hall- 

 Monkeys. 



