TRANSMUTABLE. 15o 



he might gnaw these instead. I had previously 

 put in some large branches for him to climb 

 upon ; but the others were straight sticks to cover 

 over the wood-work of his cage, which alone he 

 attacked. It so happened that the thick sticks 

 I now put into his cage, were bored in all directions 

 by a large and destructive grub, called here the 

 moutouk. Just at sun-set the aye-aye crept from 

 under his blanket, yawned, stretched, and betook 

 himself to his tree, where his movements are lively 

 and graceful, though by no means so quick as 

 those of a squirrel. 



Presently he came to one of the worm-eaten 

 branches, which he began to examine most at- 

 tentively; and bending forward his ears, and 

 applying his nose close to the bark, he rapidly 

 tapped the surface with the curious second digit, 

 as a woodpecker taps a tree, though with much 

 less noise, from time to time inserting the end 

 of the slender finger into the worm-holes, as a 

 surgeon would a probe. At length he came to 

 a part of the branch which evidently gave out 

 an interesting sound, for he began to tear it 

 with his strong teeth. He rapidly stripped off 

 the bark, cut into the wood, and exposed the 

 nest of a grub, which he daintily picked out of 

 its bed with the slender tapping finger, and con- 

 veyed the luscious morsel to his mouth. 



I watched these proceedings with intense interest, 

 and was much struck with the marvellous adap- 

 tation of the creature to its habits, shewn by 

 his acute hearing, which enables him aptly to 



