(398 NATURAL HISTORY. 



rodent, but is now assigned a place near the lemurs. Strangest of all are 

 its long, skinny lingers, the middle one long and scarcely more than skin 

 and bones. This linger is a most important instrument to the animal. 

 In drinking and in eating juicy fruits it plays the part of a spoon, or, 

 better, of the Chinese chop-sticks. It also serves as a probe and a fork 

 in extracting worms from the burrows in the wood. The aye-aye is a 

 nocturnal animal, and this fact partly accounts for its rarity in collec- 

 tions. This rarity is, however, to be attributed also to its limited dis- 

 tribution on Madagascar, and also to the veneration in which it is held 

 by the natives. 



Figure 533 represents the strange spectre or spectral lemur of the 

 Malay Archipelago, in which the eyes of the slow loris are even exagger- 

 ated. It is a small animal, the body being only some six or seven inches 

 in length. It lives in the dense forests, making its nest in the hollow 

 roots of the large bamboos, and climbing about with as much agility as any 

 tree-frog. In its arboreal evolutions it derives great assistance from the 

 large suckers on the tips of the fingers and toes, which strongly recall 

 those of the animals just mentioned. One has but to compare this figure 

 with Figure 336 to be struck by the similarity. This animal is noc- 

 turnal, and for this life the e}'es are especially adapted. It feeds largely 

 upon insects. 



The other series of Primates leads in a nearly straight line from the 

 marmosets to man, while the lemurs just noticed are an offshoot from the 

 main stem in the direction of the spectre and aye-aye. Of the present 

 line the marmosets — inhabitants exclusively of South America — are 

 unquestionably the lowest. In both habits and appearance they are much 

 like the squirrels, but are even smaller than these, being the most diminu- 

 tive of all the monkey tribe. Their thumbs are not opposable to the other 

 fingers, and the finger-tips are armed with claws rather than with nails. 

 The body is covered with long, soft hair which frequently upon the head is 

 developed into curious ornaments, as shown at the left of our figure of 

 these animals, or into a long mane, recalling that of the male lion. The 

 bod} T terminates with a tail nearly twice as long as itself ; but this member 

 is not as serviceable as it is in some of the other New-World monkeys, for 

 it cannot be coiled around objects. 



In captivity they make very interesting pets, but more from their 

 activity and vivacity than from any intellectual superiority. They are 

 timid, but come to display considerable affection for those who care for 

 them. Their curiosity is easily excited, and then they are at their best ; for 

 the head is then in active motion, peering this way and that and trying to 



