106 LEMURS. 



the root and tip, while the middle portion of it is nearly 

 bare. The eyes are enormous, and indeed seem, together 

 with the equally large ears, to constitute the greater part 

 of the face, for the nose and jaw are very small, and the 

 latter is set on, like that of a pug dog, almost at a right 

 angle. The hind limb at once attracts attention from the 

 great length of the tarsal bones, and the hand is equally 

 noticeable for its length, the curious claws with which it 

 is provided, and the extraordinary disc-shaped pulps on 

 the palmar surface of the fingers which probably enable 

 the animal to retain its hold in almost any position. 

 This weird-looking little creature we were unable to keep 

 long in captivity, for we could not get it to eat the 

 cockroaches which were almost the only food with which 

 we could supply it," 



Our brief account of the lemurs appropriately closes 

 with the strangest of them all the now well-known aye- 

 aye of Madagascar. This remarkable animal, whose 

 systematic position was long a puzzle to naturalists, was 

 discovered as far back as 1780, but for eighty years after 

 that was only known in Europe by the single specimen 

 then obtained. The aye-aye differs from all other lemurs 

 in having but eighteen teeth, but its most marked 

 peculiarity is to be found in the circumstance that the 

 single pair of front or incisor teeth in each jaw have chisel- 

 shaped crowns like those of rats and beavers, and grow 

 continuously throughout the life of their owner. Another 

 peculiarity occurs in the extremely long and attenuated 

 third finger of the hand, which surpasses all the others in 

 length, although the whole hand is remarkably elongated. 

 It also differs from other lemurs in that all the toes of the 

 foot, with the exception of the first, have pointed claws, 

 and thus resemble the second toe of the ordinary kinds. 

 In size the aye-aye may be compared to a cat, and it has a 

 rounded and somewhat cat-like head, with a short face, 

 and large naked ears. The tail is long and bushy, and the 

 general colour of the fur dark brown. 



The aye-aye represents the extreme development of the 

 lemur type, and it is evident that its peculiarities of 

 structure are correlated with equally well-marked traits of 



