14 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



reefs of granite or gneiss. This remarkable country 

 is the metropolis of the ring-tailed lemur: it avoids 

 the dense forest, keeping to the rocky precipices, its 

 leathery hands gripping the wet surfaces as a school- 

 boy's sucker grips a stone. Its food consists of 

 bananas, figs, prickly pears, &c. : the latter fruit is 

 shorn of its spiny envelope by means of the upper 

 canine teeth, which serve as rough and ready dessert 

 knives. The soil of Betsileo is poor : but rice, 

 manioc, haricot, sugar-cane, and potatoes are all 

 cultivated, and the prickly pear is abundant. 

 Plenty of food; numerous springs of good water in 

 nearly every little valley; no lions, leopards, or 

 wolves, nor even porcupines or squirrels ; Mada- 

 gascar is a paradise for the lemurs, which, enjoying 

 abundant food and free from molestation from large 

 carnivora or from competition with other aboreal 

 forms, have developed into many species in the 

 course of ages. 1 Grey, black, black-headed, broad- 

 nosed, diademed, and many other lemurs are now 

 familiar to naturalists ; so abundant is the material 

 for study of these prosimians that the number of 

 true species is by no means definitely known. The 

 ring-tailed lemurs go in large troops of from thirty 

 to forty individuals ; most lively and noisy at sunrise 

 and sunset, they are said to sleep during the heat of 

 the day and at night. 



1. Even the natives from superstitious reasons are loth to molest the 

 lemurs. 



