ORDER PRIMATES: PRIMATES 123 



may invoke some introduced disease, which seems, as Andrews de- 

 scribes, to have been the reason for the extinction of the two native 

 rats, Rattus nativitatis and R. macleari (q. v.). 



G.M.A. 



Order PRIMATES: Primates 



Family LEMURIDAE: Lemurs 



This family is restricted to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. 

 Six genera and 26 species and subspecies are recognized. While some 

 forms remain common, others have become greatly reduced in num- 

 bers, and one is evidently extinct. Owing to a steady reduction in 

 the forested area of Madagascar and to a certain amount of perse- 

 cution by the natives, the lemurs are faced with a rather uncertain 

 future. Consequently, accounts of all the forms are provided in the 

 following pages. 



Miller's Dwarf Lemur 



MICROCEBUS MURINUS MURiNUS (J. F. Miller) 



Lemur murinus J. F. Miller, Icones Anim. et Plant., pi. 13, 1777. (Madagascar.) 

 SYNONYMS: Prosimia minima Boddaert (1784) ; Lemur prehensilis Kerr (1792) ; 

 Lemur pusillus E. Geoffrey (1796) ; Galago madaffascariensis E. Geoffroy- 

 Saint-Hilaire (1812) ; Cheirogaleus minor E. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire (1812) ; 

 Microcebus rufus Wagner (1839); Myscebus palmarum Lesson (1840); 

 Microcebus myoxinus Peters (1852) ; Chirogalus gliroides Grandidier 

 (1868); Microcebus minor griseorufus Kollmann (1911). 

 FIGS.: P. Brown, New Illustrate. Zool., pi. 44, 1776; J. F. Miller, Icones 

 Anim. et Plant., pi. 13, 1777; G. Shaw, Cimelia Physica, pi. 13, 1796; 

 Audebert, 1800, Makis, pi. 8; E. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Ann. Mus. Hist. 

 Nat. [Paris], vol. 19, pi. 10, fig. 3; Peters, Reise Mossambique, Zool., I, 

 Saugethiere, pi. 3, 1852; Major, 1894, pi. 1, fig. 2; Milne Edwards, Grandi- 

 dier and Filhol, 1897, pi. 259, fig. 6; Kaudern, 1915, pi. 2, fig. 3. 



The comparative abundance of this species is indicated by the 

 fact that the Mission Zoologique Franco-Anglo-Americaine of 1929- 

 31 secured 43 specimens (Delacour, 1932, p. 220) more than of 

 any other Madagascar lemur. 



Size very small; head rounded; muzzle short and pointed; eyes 

 large and brilliant; ears large and naked (Forbes, 1894, vol. 1, p. 55) . 

 "Two phases, rufous brown or gray. The first has the head rusty 

 brown ; orbital ring and upper lip black ; stripe between eyes and on 

 nose, grayish white; upper parts of body rufous brown; dorsal line 

 indistinct ; sides of body and outer side of limbs mouse gray washed 

 with rufous brown ; entire under parts and inner side of limbs white 

 . . . ; tail rufous brown . . . ; hands and feet gray. The other phase 

 is mouse gray above, the back washed with rufous, a rufous spot 

 over each eye; outer side of limbs mouse gray; entire under parts 



