154 SPECIES NOT 



distinguish the different tones emitted from the 

 wood by his gentle tapping; his evidently acute 

 sense of smell aiding him in his search; his secure 

 footsteps on the slender brandies, to which he 

 firmly clung by his quadrumanous members; his 

 strong rodent teeth enabling him to tear through 

 the wood; and lastly, by the curious slender 

 finger, unlike that of any other animal, and which 

 he used alternately as a pleximeter, a probe, and 

 a scoop. 



But I was yet to learn another peculiarity. I 

 gave him water to drink in a saucer, on which 

 he stretched out a hand, dipped a finger into it, 

 and drew it obliquely through his open mouth ; 

 and this he did so rapidly that the water seemed 

 to flow into his mouth. After awhile he lapped 

 like a cat; but his first mode of drinking appeared 

 to me to be his way of reaching water in the 

 deep clefts of trees." 



Now can anything in nature be more beautiful 

 as an illustration of design than this exceedingly 

 interesting statement of Dr. Sand with. A small 

 creature is destined to live in a country, the 

 trees of whose luxuriant vegetation afford food t< 

 the lemurs, one of the quadrumanous family. Om- 

 member of this family, the little aye-aye, is de- 

 signed more particularly to feed upon the de- 

 structive larvae of insects which bore into the trees. 

 And to find this food it is provided with a 

 series of organs which are typical of families in- 

 sectivorous, or gnawing, and with an intelligence 

 to apply these organs equal to the higher mam- 



