108 VERE, SAWIAUEIE OR UNIO Role 
vegetable food, preferring, however, the former. Living animals best please its taste, and 
the greatest dainty that can be offered to the creature is a small bird, which it instantly 
kills, plucks, and eats Cova the bones included. Eggs are a favourite food with it, 
as are insects. It will take butcher's meat, if raw, but will not touch it if cooked in 
any way. Of vegetable substances, sugar appears to take its fancy the most, but it will 
eat fruits of various kinds, such as oranges and plantains, and has been known to suck 
gum arabic. 
Another curious inhabitant of Madagascar is the INDRI, or AVAHI, a creature that has 
sometimes been considered as one of the lemurs, and placed among them by systematic 
naturalists. From the curled and woolly hair with which the body is covered it derives 
its name of “ Laniger,” or Woolbearer. Just over the loins, and partly down the flanks, 
the soft wool-like hair takes a firmer curl than is found to be the case in any other part 
of the body or limbs. It is but a small animal, the length of its head and body being 
only a foot, and its tail nine inches. The general colour “of the fur is a lightish brown, 
with a white stripe on the back of the thigh, and a tinge of chestnut in the tail. In 
some individuals a rusty red, mingled with a 
yellow hue, takes the place of the brown ; 
and in all the under parts are lighter than 
the upper. Its face is black, and the eyes are 
grey, with a greenish light playing through 
their large orbs. 
The name Indri is a native word, signi- 
fying, it is said, “man of the woods.” Its 
voice is not very powerful, but can be heard 
at some distance. It is of a melancholy, 
wailing character, and has been likened to 
the cry of a child. 
The LitTLe GALAGO, which 1s represented 
in the lower figure of the accompanying 
engraving, is sometimes called by the name 
of the Madagascar Rat, on account of its 
rat-like form, and the colour of the fur. It 
is about the size of a small rat, and, as may 
be seen by a reference to the engraving, 
might easily be mistaken for one of those 
animals by a non-zoologist. The tint of its 
fur is a very light mouse-colour. 
The ears of the Galago are large, and, 
ANSE OS: UNDUE SUATAES HAIR during the life of the animal, are nearly 
transparent. The eyes are very large, and 
of that peculiar lustre which is always seen in the nocturnal animals. It is a native 
of Madagascar. 
The Mowout GALAGO is a larger animal than the preceding, being nearly sixteen inches 
in length, inclusive of the tail. Its colour is grey, with irregular markings of a deeper 
hue. The under parts of the body are nearly white, and the limbs are slightly tinged 
with a golden lustre. The tail is not very bushy, excepting at the extremity, and its colour 
is a chestnut brown. The texture of the fur is very soft, and there is a shght woolliness 
in its setting. 
Nocturnal in habits, it sleeps during the day, with its large ears folded over the head 
in such a manner as to give it the aspect of an earless animal. More active than the 
loris, the Moholi does not secure its prey by stealing on it with slow and silent movements, 
but leaps upon the flying insects on which it loves to feed, and seizes them in its 
slender paws. Besides insects, various fruits form part of the Moholi’s food, more 
especially such as are of a pulpy nature, and it is said that the Moholi eats that vegetable 
exudation which is known by the name of Gum-Senegal. Its diurnal repose is taken in 
the curious nest which it builds in the forked branches of trees, using grass, leaves, and 
