THE FAT-TAILED LEMURS. 6l 



Length of body, S}4 inches; tail, 13 inches; skull high and 

 arched; outer and hinder portion of ear-capsules (periotic- 

 bones) and squamosal swollen; frontal bone longer than in 

 Opolemur and Chirogale ; occiput less sloping from behind 

 and above forwards and outwards. Upper median and pos- 

 terior molars with one inner and two outer cusps, united by 

 a curved ridge, cingulate all round, and with a small cusp or 

 cingulum at the hind inner angle ; posterior pre-molars smaller 

 and shorter than the molars, witli strong and vertically longer 

 outer cusp, and a much more feeble inner cusp; posterior lower 

 molar lengthened behind by a fifth cusp. 



Distribution. — Coquerel's Dwarf-Lemur, or the " Sisiba," as 

 the natives call it, is found round Passandava Bay, near Mouroun- 

 dava, on the south-west coast of Madagascar. 



Habits. — The Sisiba, like its congeners, is nocturnal and 

 arboreal, constructing in the trees a nest of twigs. It feeds 

 on fruits and leaves. 



THE FAT-TAILED LEMURS. GENUS OPOLEMUR. 



Opolemur^ J. E. Gray, P. Z. S., 1872, p. 853. 



The term Opolenmr^ by which this genus is designated, is 

 not altogether appropriate, and is, indeed, even somewhat mis- 

 leading. It was applied in the first instance to the typical 

 species on account of the thickened base of its tail, which in 

 the type-specimen was a very conspicuous character. The 

 deposit of fat by which this thickening was caused was not 

 then known to be merely transitory — a store of food collected 

 at the base of the tail and on other parts of the body, to supply 

 the needs of the animal during the arid and foodless season, 

 when it retires into a state of torpidity. It is now known that 



