GALAGOS AND SLOW-LEMURS. 103 



the young creature mounts upon its parent's back, where 

 it remains until able to shift for itself. 



A third group is formed by the galagos, which differ 

 from the true lemurs in having two of the bones of the ankle 

 greatly elongated, so as to make this segment of the limb 

 much longer than ordinary. They all have long and bushy 

 tails, and are mostly of small size, some of them being 

 even smaller than a rat. The galagos are divided into two 

 groups one confined to Madagascar and the other to 

 Africa. The former, or dormouse-lemurs, are peculiar in 

 that during the hot dry season several of the species 

 undergo a kind of hibernation, coiled up in the hollow of 

 some tree, and in order to prepare themselves for such a 

 protracted fast they accumulate on their bodies a large 

 store of fat. The true African galagos, in addition to 

 other features, differ from the last in that their large ears 

 are capable of being partially folded up, somewhat after 

 the fashion obtaining in the common long-eared bat. Like 

 the dormouse-lemurs, they are purely nocturnal, and when 

 on the ground they hop after the manner of kangaroos, 

 the elongation of the bones of the ankle doubtless sub- 

 serving this kind of movement. 



Widely different from all the above are the curious slow- 

 lemurs of Asia and Africa, of which an Asiatic species is 

 represented in Fig. 32. These lemurs are characterized 

 by the index finger of the hand being either very short or 

 rudimentary, and likewise by their tail being similarly 

 abbreviated. The Asiatic representatives of this group, 

 of which there are two genera and about four species, 

 have the usual three joints to the index finger, which is, 

 however, extremely short, and no trace of a tail. It was 

 one of these lemurs which doubtless suggested to Linnseus 

 his name for the whole group, as their movements are slow 

 and deliberate in the extreme, their eyes large, and their 

 habits completely nocturnal. The Asiatic forms are known 

 by the name of loris. The common loris, with some allied 

 species, extends from Burma through the Malayan region 

 to Siam and Cochin China, and is a solitary animal 

 inhabiting the depths of the forests. The strange and 

 weird little animal represented in our first illustration is 



