24 The Aye- Aye. 



pecker 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 conveyed the luscious morsel to his 

 mouth." This unfortunate little beast was in due 

 time sacrificed to science, being killed by chloro- 

 form and sent over to this country in spirit. Its 

 skin may now be seen in the British Museum. 



The older writers considered the Aye- Aye to ba 

 lazy and slothful, but this is by no means its 

 character, as though, like the well-known dormouse, 

 it spends its days in its nest, curled up comfortably 

 in a ball, and covered with its bushy tail during 

 which time no doubt, as Sonnerat remarked, it 

 requires a good deal of shaking to make it move 

 still after dusk it awakes, and is sufficiently 

 lively and active during the night. Its method of 

 taking its food is, as indeed is not surprising in 

 such an extraordinary animal, most curious. In 

 this performance the long fingers are brought into 

 use, being dipped into the food and drawn rapidly 

 between the lips, thus conveying it into the mouth 

 an action which has been compared to that of a 

 Chinaman using his chopsticks. It also occasion- 

 ally laps like a cat. The specimen at the Zoo 



