CHAPTER XVIII. 



LEMURS, MOLES, AND BATS. 



67. Order 13, Prosimii. The lemurs, which 

 constitute this little order, are monkey-like animals, 

 chiefly confined to the Island of Madagascar, and to 

 other islands in the Indian Ocean. They are arbo- 

 real, fruit- or insect-eating animals, with an opposable 

 thumb on the fore foot, and sometimes on the hind 

 foot as well, the second toe of which always bears a 

 long claw, while all the others usually have flat-nails 

 like those on the human ringers. In some respects 

 the animals resemble the sloths of the New World, 

 and many of them are nocturnal. Their teeth are 

 always of the four kinds, and are more numerous 

 than those of man. They are clad in an exceedingly 

 soft and thick fur, and many of them have bushy tails, 

 while others, like the Loris, or slow lemurs, are per- 

 fectly tailless. The largest forms measure about three 

 feet in length, but some are much smaller, being only 

 a few inches long. Many zoologists regard them, on 

 account of their opposable thumbs, as closely allied 

 to the monkeys \ but in their simple brains and in 

 the structure of some of their internal organs, they 

 represent a much lower grade of organisation than 

 that of the monkeys. The aye-aye of Madagascar, a 

 strange little animal, about the size of a rabbit, has 

 nails only on its thumbs, and claws on the other 

 fingers. One singular genus from the Philippine and 



