Lemurs. 27 



Tarsiidse, and Cheiromyidae, each of the two 

 latter containing only a single species, while the 

 first is subdivided into four groups, which contain 

 all the remaining species known. The first and 

 last of these families are at the present time 

 represented at the Zoo ; the first by specimens of 

 ten or eleven species, and the last by its solitary 

 species, the Aye- Aye. 



The best known of the Lemuridse are the true 

 Lemurs, all of them inhabitants of Madagascar, of 

 which something like twenty specimens, represent- 

 ing six or seven species, are now in the Gardens. 

 It was to them that Linnaeus gave the name 

 Lemurs lemures, ghosts, from their habits being 

 more or less nocturnal though it is now popularly 

 extended to all the family. By most of the authors 

 of the last century, to whom several species were 

 known, they were called Macacos, or Makis, 

 though we find many variations in the spelling 

 for example, Maucauco, Mocawk, and Mococo, 

 and these by no means exhaust the list. 



Dr. Brookes, in his Natural History of Quad- 

 rupedes, describes seven species, while Pennant 

 enumerates eleven ; but the ringtailed lemur was 

 the Macaco, or Maki, par excellence, of all the 

 authors of this time, being then, as now, generally 

 the best known of the family. Unfortunately this 

 extremely handsome and gentle lemur is excessively 

 delicate and difficult to keep in confinement, 

 seldom living for any length of time, and is not at 

 present represented at the Zoo. It is the animal 



