160 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



"Many of the Betsimisaraka still believe that the Haihay is the 

 embodiment of their forefathers, and hence will not touch it, much 

 less do it an injury. It is said that when one is discovered dead in 

 the forest, these people make a tomb for it and bury it with all the 

 formality of a funeral." (G. A. Shaw, 1883, p. 45.) 



"It was first discovered by Sonnerat during his travels in Mada- 

 gascar in 1780, and by him sent to Paris. The skin remained unique 

 in Europe for the best part of a century. ... It was for a long 

 period, and is still, very difficult to procure, or to induce the natives 

 to capture, specimens." (Forbes, 1894, pp. 16-17.) 



Elliot (1913, vol. 1, p. 2) gives the range as "east coast from 

 Bay of Antongil to Mahanoro." 



Kaudern (1915, p. 1) records four specimens from the forests west 

 of Fenerive and Tamatave on the east coast. He also mentions 

 (p. 2) some questionable reports of the species on the Ankara- 

 fantsika Plateau in the northwest. 



G. M. Allen (1918, p. 516) records a specimen from Fenerive on 

 the Maningory River. 



"The only aye-aye seen [by the Mission Zoologique Franco- 

 Anglo-Americaine of 1929-31] was in the northwest. Throughout 

 the rain forest of the east we found few who knew this creature, 

 but in the Sambirano it was well known to the natives by name, 

 though few had seen it. All of them said it fed on bamboo and was 

 very ferocious. . . . Our -single specimen was collected at Ampasa- 

 mena, a fishing village on the coast .... This individual ventured 

 into the village during the early part of the night and was walking 

 about amongst the houses when found by a native, who impaled it 

 on a fish spear. It was evidently not common or else not often seen 

 as the chief of the village, a gray-haired old man . . . , knew the 

 beast by name but had never seen one before." (Rand, 1935, p. 103.) 



In view of the general tolerance and even awe exhibited by the 

 natives toward the Aye-aye, its rarity and possibly approaching 

 extinction must be attributable to more or less natural causes, as 

 yet undetermined. 



Family COLOBIDAE: Leaf-eating Monkeys 



The handsome Colobus Monkeys are externally distinguished 

 among African species by the reduction of the thumb, which is 

 either very small or altogether absent. A further point of structure 

 is in the sacculation of the stomach, a means probably for giving 

 greater capacity and a larger absorbing surface to the digestive 

 system, for the species are typically leaf-eaters and must in conse- 

 quence live upon a type of food requiring bulk and much digestion. 

 Two chief types occur, the black-and-white and the red groups. 



