CHARACTERS OF PRIMATES 



and which is not found in other mammals. It is to be 

 noted further that, again with but few exceptions, the 

 Primates have five fingers and five toes the reduction 

 of digits so common in other groups, especially the 

 Ungulata, not being met with here to the extent of 

 more than one digit. Again, the Primates are hairy 

 creatures, and are never spiny or naked. The nails 

 upon the fingers and toes are to a considerable extent, 

 or even entirely, flat, and as a rule not claw-like. There 

 are, however, exceptions in the case of some digits in 

 some Primates. The Primates have canine teeth, with 

 the sole exception of the aberrant and remarkable 

 Madgascar lemur Chiromys, the aye-aye, which has 

 furthermore huge incisors and simulates in other ways 

 a rodent animal, with which group it was in fact at 

 one time confounded. It is at times to be found in 

 the collection at the Zoo. 



It is plainly possible to divide the Primates into 

 two divisions, viz. the Anthropoidea, or monkeys and 

 man, and the Lemuroidea, or lemurs. The latter group 

 connects the higher group with such lying lower in the 

 scale as the Insectivora. They lack the literally straight- 

 forward look of the Anthropoidea ; for the eye sockets 

 in the skull are not so distinctly marked off for the 

 reception of the eyes and the eyes only, as in apes and 

 man. Their features, too, are foxy, and their brain is 

 at a lower level than that of the higher Primates. Inter- 

 mediate types, however, lately discovered in Madagascar, 

 and of extinct forms, forbid a complete separation of 

 the lemurs and monkeys. 



MONKEYS AND APES. THE SUB-ORDER ANTHROPOIDEA 



The distinguishing features of the higher Primates, 

 the monkeys, have been already dwelt upon. It 

 remains to consider the group a little further, in itself, 



21 



