FOOT-HANDED FOXES AND SQUIRRELS. 231 



midway between the lemur and the squirrel. It is a native 

 of Madagascar, and, when full grown, is about eighteen 

 inches long. The structure of its teeth, made necessary 

 by its habits of life, is quite like that of the squirrel, or 

 rodents. It is strictly nocturnal in its habits, and there- 

 fore in its native forest is seldom seen. During the day 

 it sleeps in holes in the ground. Mr. Wallace says : " But 

 its most remarkable character is found in its fore-feet, or 

 hands, the fingers of which are all very long, and armed 

 with sharp, curved claws ; but one of them, the second, is 

 wonderfully slender, being not half the thickness of the 

 others. This peculiar structure adapts it to feeding upon 

 small, wood-boring insects. 



4. " Its strong feet and sharp claws enable it to cling 

 firmly to the branches of trees, in almost any position ; by 

 means of its large, delicate ears, it listens for the sound of 

 the insect gnawing within the branch, and is thus able to 

 fix its exact position ; with its powerful, curved, gnawing 

 teeth, it rapidly cuts away the bark and wood, till it ex- 

 poses the burrow of the insect, most probably the soft 

 larva of some beetle, and then comes into play the ex- 

 traordinary long, wire-like finger, which enters into the 

 burrow, and, with the sharp, bent claws, brings out the 

 grub. 



5. " Here we have a most complex adaptation of dif- 

 ferent parts and organs, all converging to one special end, 

 that end being the same as is reached by a group of birds, 

 the woodpeckers, in a different way ; and it is a most in- 

 teresting fact that, although woodpeckers abound in all 

 the great continents, they are quite absent from Madagas- 

 car. We may, therefore, consider that the aye-aye really 

 occupies the same place in nature, in the forests of this 

 tropical island, as do the woodpeckers in other parts of the 

 worldo" 



