THE PROPITHEQUES, OR SIFAKAS 207 



yards in passing from bough to bough ; and so rapid are their motions that 

 Grandidier speaks of them as appearing to fly rather than leap. On the rare 

 occasions when they descend from their favorite trees, they advance by means of 

 long leaps, as owing to the shortness of their arms it is not easy for them to walk 

 on the ground on all fours like the majority of monkeys. To see them, observes 

 Grandidier (from whom the whole of this account is taken), resting on their hind 

 feet, and at each leap throwing up their arms in the air, the spectator might be led 

 to think for a moment that he was looking at children at play. Indeed, a troop of 

 these creatures advancing across the plains in the manner described, is said to be a 

 truly ludicrous sight. Not only are the hands of the sifakas of no use to their 

 owners in walking, but they are almost equally useless as organs of prehension ; 

 and when a sifaka has occasion to pick up a fruit from the ground, he will 

 usually stoop down and seize it in his mouth. When conveyed to the hand, 

 such an object is grasped between the bent fingers and the palm, and not be- 

 tween the fingers and thumb. As purely grasping organs, adapted to afford a firm 

 hold to the branches of trees, both the hands and feet of these lemurs are, however, 

 perfect. 



In disposition the sifakas are described as being gentle, and they but seldom 

 attempt to bite, while if they do so the wound they inflict is not serious. At certain 

 seasons, however, the males are wont to engage in contests among themselves, the 

 results of which are frequently visible in their torn and tattered ears. Unlike many 

 other lemurs, they are, as a rule, silent ; but when frightened or angry they give 

 vent to a low cry somewhat resembling the clucking of a fowl. In a word, so far 

 as character goes, these animals may be described as being but little active, but 

 little restless, and but little intelligent. 



The diademed sifaka (P. diadema), known to the natives of Mada- 

 f gascar as the simpona, is the largest of the three species, and at 



the same time the one which was first brought to the notice of science, 

 having been described by E. T. Bennett in the year 1832. It takes its name from 

 the band of white hairs running across the forehead, which, with the gray fringe of 

 hair on the cheeks and chin, surrounds the black face, and thus gives to the 

 animal a peculiar and striking physiognomy. The crown and back of the head, 

 together with the outer surface of the ears and the nape of the neck, are a dark 

 brown color, and the same tint extends over the shoulders, so as to give somewhat 

 the appearance of a mantle, and ends in a point on the back ; this point in some 

 individuals being only just below the neck, while in others it reaches as far back as 

 the loins. Occasionally this dark mantle-like area, instead of being dark brown, is 

 of a gray tint. The loins and flanks are generally gray, varying considerably in 

 different individuals, the gray passing gradually into the brown of the back and 

 the orange round the tail, and extending to the upper parts of the arms, or even 

 enveloping the whole of the upper arm. The fore-arms, together with the region 

 round the tail and the legs, are generally of a bright orange yellow, although 

 occasionally yellowish white with some intermixed black hairs. The hands are 

 mainly black, but the feet have a good deal of yellow in them ; the basal half of 

 the tail is yellowish, while the rest of it is gray. 



