212 



APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS 



along the whole eastern side of this province, fringing the table-land, and covering 

 all the slopes down into the lowland bordering the sea ; but nowhere in these forests 

 have the ring-tailed lemurs been found. Their habitat in the south and southwest 

 is among the rocks ; over which they can easily travel where it is impossible for the 

 people, although barefooted, to follow. An examination of their hands will show 

 that they are pre-eminently adapted for this kind of locomotion. The palms are 

 long, smooth, level, and leather-like, and enable the animal to find a firm footing on 

 the slippery wet rocks, very much on the same principle as that which assists the 

 fly to walk up a pane of glass. The thumbs on the hinder hands are very much 

 smaller in proportion than in the lemurs inhabiting the forests, which depend upon 

 their grasping power for their means of progression. These spring from tree to 



THE RING-TAILED LEMUR. 

 (One-seventh natural size.) 



tree, and rarely, if ever, touch the ground, except in search of water. Hence the 

 ring-tailed lemurs are an exception to the general habits of the Lemurida, in that 

 they are not arboreal. There are very few trees near their district ; and those which 

 do grow there are very stunted and bushy. 



OTHER SPECIES 



Red-Fronted 

 Lemur 



The whole of the other species of true lemurs are readily distin- 

 guished from the preceding by their uniformly colored tails. The 

 number of nominal species is, however, too large to permit of reference 



to all of them, and the one which we select as the next representative of the genus 



is the red- fronted lemur (L. rufifrons'). 



