Apes, Monkeys, and Lemurs 



Plioto by L. Medtand, F.Z.S.} [North Finchley. 



SLENDER LORIS. 



This extraordinary creature has the habits of a chameleon when 

 seeking insects for food. The photograph is unique. 



of many of the lemuroid animals corresponds to the 

 hibernation of many northern mammals. Tropical 

 animals often become torpid to avoid the famine 

 caused by the hot season, just as creatures in cold 

 countries hibernate to avoid the hunger which would 

 otherwise come with winter. 



THE SLOW LEMURS OR LORISES, AND TARSIERS. 



Another group of lemuroids is distinguished from 

 the foregoing by having the second finger of the 

 fore paws either very short or rudimentary. The 

 thumb and great toe are also set very widelv 

 apart from the other fingers and toes. A far 

 more striking distinction to the non-scientific eye 

 is their astonishingly deliberate and slow movements. 

 They have no tails, enormous eyes, and very long, 

 slender legs. 



The SLOW LORIS is found in Eastern India and 

 the Malay countries, where it is fairly common in 

 the forests. The Bengali natives call it sharmindi 

 billi (" bashful cat "), from its slow, solemn, hesitating 

 movements when in pursuit of insects. Of a slow 

 loris kept by him, Sir William Jones, in the " Asiatic 

 Researches," wrote : " At all times he seemed pleased at being stroked on the head and throat, 

 and he frequently allowed me to touch his extremely sharp teeth. But his temper was always 

 quick, and when he was unseasonably disturbed he expressed a little resentment, by an obscure 

 murmur, like that of a squirrel. . . . When a grasshopper or any insect alighted within his 

 reach, his eyes, as he fixed them on his prey, glowed with uncommon fire; and having drawn 

 himself back to spring on his prey with greater force, he seized it with both his fore paws, 

 and held it till he had devoured it. He never could have enough grasshoppers, and spent 

 the whole night in prowling for them." 



The SLENDER LORIS, an equally curious creature, is only found in Southern India and 

 Ceylon. Its food consists entirely of insects, which it captures by gradual, almost paralysed 

 approach. It has been described as a "furry-coated chameleon." A group of slow lemurs, 

 living in Western Africa, are known as 

 POTTOS. They are odd little quadrupeds, 

 in which the "forefinger" never grows to 

 be more than a stump. The tail is also 

 either sharp or rudimentary. They are as 

 slow as the lorises in their movements. 



In the Malay islands a distant rela- 

 tive, even more curiously formed, is found 

 in the TARSIER. It has the huge eyes, 

 pointed ears, and beautiful fur of the 

 galagos, but the tail is long, thin, and 

 tufted. The fingers are flattened out into 

 disks, like a tree-frog's. These creatures hop 

 from bough to bough in a frog-like manner 

 in search of insects. They are not so large 

 as a good-sized rat. Our photograph does photo ^ L - mdland > F - z ^ 



. , ., r c . ,. SLOW LORIS. 



not give an adequate idea ot the size 01 ot _: ma i ,, n t nhown to 



Another of the slow-moving loris group. These animals are 

 the eyes. the general public at the Zoo, but kept in a specially warmed room. 



