3o TOMMY AND PEARLIE. 



One day I heard that a young specimen of a 

 Ruffed Lemur had been seen in a cage at the top of 

 a cart full of birds and curious animals, a sort of 

 small travelling menagerie which was stopping for 

 a few days at a town five miles off. A mounted 

 messenger was sent off at once with a basket, and 

 full directions about the purchase of the little 

 lemur, and, to my great delight, when the man 

 returned with it, it proved to be all I could desire, 

 quite young and healthy and very tame. 



It must have been a pleasant change from the 

 cold, draughty cage it had been used to, to the 

 large wired-in recess in my conservatory, which 

 was always kept at a genial temperature, and 

 where, leaping from branch to branch, the agile 

 little creature could play its graceful frolics from 

 morning till night, hanging head downwards, 

 swinging on a trapeze like a born acrobat, and 

 evidently enjoying its life as much as if it had been 

 in its native woods. The showman had always 

 called the lemur Tommy, so we supposed that was 

 an indication of its sex, and retained the name 

 to which it had been accustomed. 



One day in summer I had one of my large 



