THK GAI.AGO. MAMMALIA. THE TARSIER. 



45 





which it resembles much in its general characters, it is 

 a nocturnal animal, slow in its motions, feeding partly 

 upon fruits and tender leaves, and partly upon insects 

 and other animal matters. 



THE SENEGAL GALAGO (Galago senegalensis), 

 Plate 4, fig. 14. The galagos, which constitute the 

 remainder of this family, are elegant squirrel -like 

 creatures, with rounded heads, large eyes, large mem- 

 branous ears, and long tails. They differ from the 

 potto in the elongation of the tarsal portion of the foot, 

 and in the greater development of the first finger 

 of the hauds. In their dentition and most of their 

 other characters they agree with the preceding species. 

 Like these they are nocturnal animals, living amongst 

 the branches of the forests, where they prey upon 

 small birds and insects. Fruits also constitute a por- 

 tion of their nourishment. 



The Senegal Galago, which is the best known 

 species, is an elegant little creature rather larger than 

 a squirrel, of a grey colour, with a reddish tinge on 

 some parts, and with the lower surface paler or 

 whitish. It inhabits a considerable portion of the 

 African continent, occurring in Senegal, Caffraria, 

 Abyssinia, and Mozambique. It was first discovered 

 in the first-mentioned locality by the celebrated Adan- 

 son, who describes its habits as intermediate between 

 those of the monkeys and squirrels. It appears from 

 the statements of the great French voyage/ and of 

 later observers, that the galagos principally inhabit the 

 great forests of acacias which furnish the gum-arabic 

 of commerce, and that the Moors who bring them 

 down from their native haunts give them the name of 

 Gum animals, and declare that they feed upon that 

 substance. It appears, indeed, that they will eat gum 

 when offered to them ; but they show a very decided 

 preference for insect food, those which have been 

 observed in captivity being always on the watch for 

 insects, exhibiting considerable excitement when they 

 only hear the sounds produced by these animals, and 

 seizing upon any unlucky victim that may come within 

 their reach with the greatest avidity. In their native 

 haunts they display great agility upon the trees, 

 amongst the branches of which they are always sport- 

 ing at night, springing suddenly upon their insect prey 

 with a velocity greatly aided by the length of their 

 hinder limbs. They nestle in holes of the trunks of 

 trees, which they line with soft beds of grass and 

 herbage for the reception of their young. 



Several other species of galago have been described 

 all from the African continent. The largest is the 

 G. ct-assicaudatus, an inhabitant of Mozambique and 

 Port Xatal, which is about the size of a rabbit. 



FAMILY VII. TARSILLXE. 



The galagos, as already stated, are distinguished 

 from the other members of their family by the great 

 length of their tarsus, and the large size of then- ears ; 

 in these respects they show an evident approach to 

 the little creatures which form the present family, 

 and which might, perhaps, be included in the same 

 group with them without much violence to a natural 

 system. The tarsiers, however, exhibit so many 



peculiar characters, that although only a single species 

 of the group is well-known, this may well be regarded 

 as the type of a distinct family. The characters 

 by which this is distinguished, independently of the 

 elongation of the tarsus, are the presence of only 

 two incisor teeth in the lower jaw, the uniformity of 

 position of the four upper incisors, which do not stand 

 in two pairs, and the existence of claws upon both the 

 first and second fingers of the hinder hands. 



THE TAESIEE (Tarsius Spectrum), Plate 4, fig. 15, 

 the only species of this family whose existence can be 

 regarded as well established, is an inhabitant of several 

 islands of the Indian archipelago, especially Celebes, 

 Borneo, and Banca ; it also occurs in the Philippine 

 Islands and Sumatra. It is an elegant little creature, 

 about the size of a common rat, clothed with a soft 

 reddish-brown fur, and furnished with a long slender 

 tail, the extremity of which is tufted. The most 

 remarkable peculiarity in its structure is the confor- 

 mation of the hinder extremities, which are of great 

 length, and upon which this little animal is described 

 as leaping about in the forest like a frog. The tarsi 

 are much elongated and very slender, but the feet are 

 considerably widened at their extremity, and the toes 

 exhibit a singular relative proportion. The inner toe, 

 the opposable thumb of the hind feet, is large and 

 powerful, but its next neighbour is the shortest of all ; 

 the next toe and the outermost one are about equal in 

 length, and that between them is the longest. By 

 this means the foot acquires a singular bunched and 

 deformed appearance, which, however, is probably in 

 some way connected with the habits of the animal. 



The tarsier is a gentle, inoffensive, nocturnal animal, 

 which may be easily tamed; when it exhibits both 

 intelligence and affection to those who have the care of 

 it. It resides in the damp forests of the islands above 

 mentioned, where it is said by Dr. S. Mu'ller to frequent 

 the tops of the trees, and its food is described by 

 different writers as consisting partly of fruits and partly 

 of insects. The malays call it Podje, and, according to 

 Sir Thomas Raffles, the natives of Sumatra have such 

 a superstitious dread of it, that if they chance to see a 

 tarsier upon one of the trees in the vicinity of their 

 rice fields, they will immediately abandon the spot from 

 a fear that some misfortune will otherwise befall them. 

 The true position of this curious creature was long a 

 matter of doubt, some authors having arranged it with 

 the jerboas, and others with the marsupial animals. 



FAMILY VIII. CHEIROMYID^). 



We have already stated (pp. 15, 16) that besides 

 the Simiae and Prosimiae, or, as they may be called, the 

 Monkeys and Lemurs, two other families are commonly 

 placed in the present order, although the peculiarities 

 of their structure are so remarkable that their true 

 position may still be regarded as a matter of dispute. 

 This is especially true of the present family, which 

 would seem to constitute a connecting link between the 

 widely distant orders of the Quadrumana and Rodentia, 

 partaking so much of the characters of both, as to have 

 been placed alternately, by different zoologists, some- 

 times in one and sometimes in the other of those orders. 



