A YEN I A. 



203 



The size of the aye-aye is about the same as that 

 of a hare ; the covering of the body is a mixture of 

 brown and yellow ; the ears, which are large, are 

 nearly naked ; and the long tail is covered with 

 coarse black hair : the tail is not prehensile. The 

 outline of the head has not the arched or rounded 

 form which is common to all, or nearly all, the true 

 rodentia, which are ascertained to gnaw vegetable 

 substances, but more resembles that of some of the 

 quadrnmana ; the teeth are, however, truly rodent in 

 their structure : the incisors are very large, and 

 curve outwards in Lreth jaws ; and on their front 

 edges they are much more deeply furrowed than 

 those of the squirrels. They are two in each jaw, 

 which is the normal, and indeed the constant number 

 in the rodentia. Four cutting teeth in each jaw is 

 the normal number in the quadrumana, though some 

 have as many as six in the under jaw, and some are 

 described as having only two in the one, but a greater 

 number in the other. The subjects from whicla those 

 accounts are taken are, however, in some instances, 

 only mutilated fragments, so that descriptions founded 

 on them are not very satisfactory. All the quad- 

 rumana, too, have canine teeth, which are wholly 

 wanting in the aye-aye, and their grinders are more 

 numerous. Of these, the aye-aye has four in each 

 side of the upper jaw, and three in the under, small 

 in size, and separated from the cutting teeth by wide 

 intervals. The quadrumana also have pectoral 

 mammas ; but the mamma3 of the aye-aye, which, like 

 these, are only two in number, are in the groin. 

 Indeed, all the characters which are usually consi- 

 dered as being most important in the formation of a 

 natural or structural classification, are similar to those 

 of the rodentia. 



Still there are some doubts as to the habits of the 

 animal. Like the gafngos and tarsins, which perhaps 

 deviate more from what may be considered the type 

 of the order, and which in structure they resemble 

 the most, the animals of the genus under considera- 

 tion are nocturnal ; and they are said to live upon 

 insects and larvae, which they pick out of the crevices of 

 the bark with their long and slender fingers. However 

 that may be, the form of their fingers is certainly not 

 the best adapted for such a purpose, inasmuch as an 

 insect cannot easily be taken by means of a single 

 finger terminated by a claw, however long and slender 

 it may be. The teeth, too, are very unlike those of 

 any animals which are known to feed exclusively or 

 chiefly upon insects ; and the nocturnal habits of the 

 animals, if not adverse to the fact of picking insects 

 and larvae out of the crevices of the bark, are, at all 

 events, not very favourable to the observation of it. 

 No doubt many of the rodentia are insectivorous, and 

 contrive to capture insect prey in the dark (the com- 

 mon mouse is a great devourer of cock-roaches), but 

 they do not pick them out of small crevices. In confine- 

 ment, the aye-aye has been fed wholly upon vege- 

 table matter, which it ate very readily, using its hands 

 like a squirrel ; or rather its long fingers, as the 

 Chinese do their " chop-sticks." 



The aye-aye is described as spending the day in 

 holes of the ground ; one would suppose natural ones, 

 because the paws are very unlike those of ordinary 

 burrowing animals ; but the same or similar pur- 

 poses are, in the animal kingdom, so often accom- 

 plished by organs apparently very different from 

 each other, that this animal may dig its own burrows. 



The general character is, however, that of a clim- 



ber, though a less expert climber than many other 

 animals because of the shortness of the fore-legs ; 

 these are considerably shorter and also more feeble 

 than the hind ones, and the length and slenderness-of 

 the fingers makes them look more feeble than they 

 are in reality. All the fingers on these paws (or 

 hands) are very long and slender, especially the 

 second ones ; and the claws upon them are long, con- 

 siderably crooked, and at their bases nearly as thick 

 as the fingers. The thumb on these is articulated 

 near the wrist, and the point of it does not reach 

 beyond the first joint of the fore-finger ; but it 

 acts very slightly, if at all, in opposition to the fingers ; 

 the fact is, that the hands, like the animal itself, are 

 rather puzzles, as there is not any similar organs 

 with which they can be very fairly compared. From 

 the shortness and feebleness of the arms, and the 

 spider-like structure of the hands, they are neither 

 efficient for walking nor for reaching long distances 

 from branch to branch in climbing ; and the lengths of 

 the fingers are so unequal, and the nails so long, that 

 the fingers do not appear very capable of being used 

 in any way but singly. 



The hind feet are much more robust, and formed 

 as if they were the principal organs of locomotion ^ 

 the soles are long, and they plant them fairly upon the 

 ground, and do not turn on the side, like the feet of 

 many animals that live chiefly in trees. The toes on 

 them are long and slender, but not nearly so much so 

 as those on the anterior extremities, and the nails, 

 though sharp and considerably crooked, are much 

 smaller. The thumbs on the hind feet are articulated 

 far back ; they are rather short, reaching only as far as 

 the division of the fingers ; but they act in opposition 

 to these, so that the foot is both a walking and a pre- 

 hensile instrument ; the hind leg and thigh are as 

 stout and muscular as the fore ones are slender. 



The whole animal indeed is peculiar, almost to the 

 extent of being an anomaly. It is certainly made a 

 separate genus with much propriety; and it can 

 hardly be said to come into any of the natural fami- 

 lies, and not very satisfactorily into any of the orders, 

 as at present constituted. If the teeth are to be taken 

 as the basis, and that they are the most certain basis 

 there is no question, the animal clearly and decidedly 

 belongs to the rodentia; because the coincidence 

 with those species which may be regarded as 

 typical of the order are perfect. Upon this point 

 Cuvier appears not to have the slightest doubt or 

 hesitation, and his knowledge of the structure of 

 animals, and discrimination in the use of it for the 

 purposes of arrangement, were of so very superior 

 a description that, except upon some minor points 

 where he was not well informed as to the facts, oppo- 

 sition to what he has deliberately laid down, betrays 

 as much of rashness as of any thing else. If, on the 

 other hand, we depart from the principle of the 

 teeth, and go to the general structure of the animal, 

 we are left in doubt and perplexity. It has analogy 

 to several others ; but it has well-established affinity 

 to none ; and even the analogies are imperfect, and 

 far from close, even as far as they go. There is not, 

 in any respect, identity between it and any other 

 handed animal. It stands alone, and it wants to be 

 more intimately studied. 



AYENIA (Linnaeus). A genus of plants con- 

 taining two species, natives of Jamaica ; one is an 

 under shrub, the other a biennial herb. Liiinaean 

 class and order, Pcnlandria Monogynia ; natural 



