MONKEYS, APES AND THEIR KINDRED 169 



It was first discovered on the Rio Negro, being described by 

 Wagner, the German naturalist, but it was not until 1870 that the 

 first living specimen reached England, and this only lived a month. 

 It has long, thick black fur, which is very soft, and white cheeks. 

 Across the forehead there is a bright reddish-yellow band ; the 

 underneath is greyish-yellow in the female and yellow in the male, 

 and, as Fig. 136 clearly portrays, the eyes are very prominent, being 

 pale blue in colour. 



It is an inhabitant of the forest, travelling about in small com- 

 panies. Active in disposition, it must be a fine sight to observe the 

 male in his brilliant dress in his native wilds. The food consists of 

 berries. 



BLACK LEMUR. — The Lemurs are a most interesting family of 

 Monkeys, divided into four sub-families, and of these we have 

 representatives in the Black Lemur (Fig. 137), Dwarf Lemur (Fig. 

 138), Grey Slow Loris (Fig. 139), Slender Loris (Fig. 140) and 

 Maholi Galago (Fig. 141), whilst it is proposed to finish this section 

 of our work by referring to the Douroucolis (Fig. 142), which are 

 small animals somewhat Lemurine in appearance. 



The distinguishing characteristics of the typical Lemurs are the 

 thick woolly fur; the Dog-like snout and nostrils, and the structure 

 and number of the teeth. The true Lemurs — to which the Black 

 Lemurs shown in Fig. 137 belong — have small oval ears profusely 

 clothed with long hair; the fore and hind limbs are of about the 

 same length ; and the tail is long and bushy. Among these true 

 Lemurs may be found some of the most brilliantly coloured of living 

 animals. They are of social habits, and although some kinds do not 

 lead an arboreal life, the majority do so. 



Unlike the other members of the Lemurinse, these true Lemurs 

 are not nocturnal, but feed at morning and evening, resting during 

 the heat of the day and sleeping at nightfall, "with their long tails 

 coiled about them." They progress on all-fours, and differ in this 

 respect from most of their relatives, and feed upon fruit, birds and 

 their eggs, and also insects. These true Lemurs all inhabit 

 Madagascar and the Comoro Islands, lying in the west of the Indian 

 Ocean. 



Solicitous for the welfare of her young, the female carries her 

 babies about with her, they being hidden among the thick hair of 

 her breast; when, however, the youngsters are too big to be thus 

 pampered, they adhere to the mother's back. 



The Black Lemur is an inhabitant of the North-West coast of 



