Loris. 24 
GENUS LORIS. 
Body and limbs slender; no tail ; eyes very large, almost contiguous ; 
nose acute. 
No. 29. LOoRIS GRACILIS. 
The Slender Lemur (Jerdon’s No. 11). 
NativE Names.—Zevangar, Tamil; Dewantsipilli, Telegu. (Oona 
happslava, Singhalese.—Ke//aart.) 
Hasitrat.—Southern India and Ceylon. 
DescripTion.—Above greyish rufescent (tawny snuff brown: 
Kellaart) ; beneath a paler shade; a white triangular spot on forehead, 
extending down the nose; fur short, dense, and soft; ears thin, rounded 
(Jerdon). A hooped claw on inner toes ; nails of other toes flat ; posterior 
third of palms and soles hairy (Kellaart). 
S1zeE.—About 8 inches; arm, 5; leg, 53. 
This, like the last, is also nocturnal in its habits, and from the extreme 
slowness of its movements is called in Ceylon ‘‘the Ceylon sloth.” Its 
diet is varied—fruit, flower, and leaf buds, insects, eggs, and young birds. 
Sir Emerson Tennent says the Singhalese assert that it has been known 
to strangle pea-fowl at night and feast on the brain, but this I doubt. 
Smaller birds it might overcome. Jerdon states that in confinement 
it will eat boiled rice, plantains, honey or syrup and raw meat. 
McMaster, at page 6 of his ‘Notes on Jerdon,’ gives an interesting 
extract from an old account of ‘Dr. John Fryer’s Voyage to East India 
and Bombain,’ in which he describes this little animal as “ Men of the 
Woods, or more truly Satyrs ;” asleep during the day ; but at “ Night they 
Sport and Eat.” “They had Heads like an owl. Bodied like a monkey 
without Tails. Only the first finger of the Right Hand was armed with 
a claw like a bird, otherwise they had hands and feet which they walk 
upright on, not pronely, as other Beasts do.” 
These little creatures double themselves up when they sleep, bending 
the head down between their legs. Although so sluggish generaily, 
jerdon says they can move with considerable agility when they choose. 
SUB-ORDER PLEUROPTERA.—FAMILY GALA:- 
OPITHECIDZ:. 
There is a curious link between the Lemurs and the Bats in the 
Colugos (Galeopithecus) : their limbs are connected with a membrane as in 
the Flying Squirrels, by which they can leap and float for a hundred 
yards on an inclinedyplane. They are mild, inoffensive animals, subsist- 
D 
