THE LEMUR? 



-MAMMALIA. 



THE 



4.'- 



and, like all the lower Quadrumana, have a great liking 

 for eggs and young birds, which they may seize with 

 great ease during their nocturnal expeditions through 

 the forest. The females produce only a single young 

 one at a birth, and attend to this with the greatest 

 tenderness. At first they carry their offspring about in 

 their arms, the little creature aiding its mother's efforts 

 by clinging to her breast; but as the young lemur 

 increases in size, it coils itself round her middle, and is 

 thus carried about. 



In confinement the lemurs are lively and playful, and 

 the elegance of their forms and gracefulness of their 

 actions render them most pleasing objects in our mena- 

 geries, where, notwithstanding the tropical tenderness 

 of their constitution, they have been known to live for 

 many years, and even to breed. They exhibit less 

 intelligence than the higher Quadrumana, but at the 

 same time are destitute of the ferocity which often 

 characterizes the latter as they increase in years. In 

 general the lemurs are very gentle and harmless, fond 

 of licking the hands of their visitors, and testify their 

 contentment by a curious purring noise. According to 

 the observations of M. F. Cuvier upon the mongous, 

 the claw of the first finger of the hinder hands is fre- 

 quently introduced into the ear and kept there some 

 time, for what purpose does not appear ; the use of the 

 projecting incisors of the lower jaw seems to be to act 

 as a sort of coinb in cleaning the fur, which the animals 

 are very fond of doing, not unfrequently performing 

 this good office for each other. 



THE KING-TAILED LEMTJB, (Lemur Catta), or 

 MACACO, Plate 3, fig. 11, is one of the most elegant, 

 and, at the same time, one of the best-known species of 

 this family. It is about the size of a large cat, and its 

 general colour is a delicate ashy grey ; the sides of the 

 head and face, the throat, chest, and belly, are white ; 

 and the long bushy tail is beautifully marked with 

 broad rings of black and white. The form of the head 

 in this species is perhaps more elegant than in any 

 other lemur, and the vivacity and intelligence of its 

 appearance are heightened by its white, pointed, and 

 erect ears. In its manners also it is usually the most 

 amiable and playful of all the lemurs, and appears to 

 feel more affection than any of them for its master. 



THE MONGOUS (Lemur Mongoz), is another species 

 which is frequently brought to Europe, and indeed 

 appears to be one of the most abundant in its native 

 country. It is a little larger than the ring-tailed lemur, 

 and its body is entirely clothed with a thick coat of 

 tawny woolly hair. The sides of the face are orna- 

 mented with a pair of orange whiskers, the top of the 

 head is black in the male, grey in the female, and the 

 tip of the tail is also black. In speaking of the agility 

 of this species M. F. Cuvier mentions that an individual 

 in his possession was able to spring from the ground to 

 the branch of a tree, at a height of at least ten feet. 



The only other species of the genus Lemur to which 

 we shall refer is the Pied Lemur (L. Macaco), which 

 is remarkable for the distribution of its colours, consist- 

 ing in large irregular patches of black ar.d white. The 

 tail and hands are entirely black, as are also the face 

 and muzzle; a large black patch surrounds the shoulders 

 and neck, and a still larger one occupies nearly the 



whole of the back, leaving only a comparatively narrow 

 white band between it and the patch on the shoulders. 

 This is the most usual arrangement of the black and 

 white in the pied lemur; but it varies considerably, and 

 specimens have been seen in which only the tail, the 

 hands, and the muzzle were black. This species 

 appears to be of a fiercer character than most of its 

 congeners ; some French travellers declare it to be as 

 ferocious and eruel as a tiger, and M. F. Cuvier records 

 an instance of a pied lemur which had lived for some 

 time on good terms with a mongous having turned 

 upon his companion the night after a change had been 

 made in their abode, and utterly destroyed him. 



Besides these true lemurs the forests of Madagascar 

 nourish several other species belonging to this family, 

 which have been regarded as belonging to distinct 

 genera. Most of them belong to the genus Cheiro- 

 galeus, and the most important characters by which 

 they are distinguished from the rest of the lemurs 

 consist in the greater roundness of the head, the com- 

 parative shortness of the muzzle, and the larger size ot 

 the eyes. The latter character would indicate a more 

 decidedly nocturnal activity than prevails even among 

 the lemurs. 



THE CHEIROGALETJS MILII, one of the few species 

 of this group of the habits of which we know anything, 

 and at the same time one of the largest of them, measures 

 about fourteen inches in length, exclusive of the tail, 

 which is rather longer than the body ; it is covered with 

 a thick silky fur of a tawny -grey colour on all the upper 

 parts of the body, and white beneath. Its legs are very 

 much shorter than in the ordinary lemurs. A specimen 

 in the menagerie of Paris passed the whole day sleeping 

 in a nest which it made for itself with hay, and the 

 whole night in active movement. Its agility was so 

 great that it could spring to a height of six or eight 

 feet. It fed upon fruits, bread, and biscuits. The 

 Cheirogaleus Murinus, described long since by Brown 

 as the Little Macauco, is the smallest of the Lemuridse, 

 its body measuring only about six inches in length ; it 

 was described by Buffon in his manuscripts under the 

 name of the Madagascar rat. 



FAMILY V. LICHANOTID.ffi. 



The preceding are not, however, the only quadru- 

 manous inhabitants of Madagascar. The forests of 

 that remarkable and still imperfectly-explored island, 

 nourish another family of these animals, regarded by 

 some writers as standing in the same relation to the 

 lemurs as the anthropoid apes to the ordinary monkeys. 

 These are the Indris, which are distinguished from the 

 preceding by the presence of only thirty teeth. The 

 anterior teeth in the lower jaw are, however, placed 

 almost horizontally as in the lemurs. 



THE INDEI (Indris Brevicaudatus), Plate 3, fig. 

 12, is exceedingly remarkable in its form, and also 

 deserves notice from its being the largest known species 

 of the entire group of the Prosimiae or lemurine Quadru- 

 mana. When in an erect position the indri measures 

 upwards of three feet in height. Its tail is exceedingly 

 short, indeed almost rudimentary, and its hind legs 

 very long circumstances which render it the most 



