January 2, 1893 ] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



17 



The former, or dormouse lemurs, are peculiar in that 

 during the hot dry season several of the species undergo a 

 kind of hibernation, coiled up in the hollow of some tree, 

 and in order to prepare themselves for such a protracted 

 fast they accumulate on their bodies a large store of fat. 

 The true African galagos, in addition to other features, 

 ditlor from the last in that their large ears are capable of being 

 partially folded up, somewhat after the fashion 

 obtaining in the common long-eared bat. Like 

 the dormouse lemurs, they are purely nocturnal, 

 and when on the ground they hop after the 

 manner of kangaroos, the elongation of the 

 bones of the ankle doubtless subserving this 

 kind of movement. 



Widely different from all the above are the - 



curious slow-lemurs of Asia and Africa, of 

 which an Asiatic species is represented in 

 Fig. 1. These lemurs are characterized by 

 the index finger of the hand being either 

 very short or rudimentary, and likewise by 

 their tail being similarly abbreviated. The 

 Asiatic representatives of this group, of 

 which there are two genera and about four 

 species, have the usual three joints to the 

 index finger, which is, however, extremely 

 short, and no trace of a tail. It was one 

 of these lemurs which doubtless suggested 

 to Linnsus his name for the whole group, 

 as their movements are slow and deliberate 

 in the extreme, their eyes large, and their 

 habits completely nocturnal. The Asiatic 

 forms are known by the name of loris. 

 The common loris, with some allied species, 

 extends from Burma through the Malayan 

 region to Siam and Cochin China, and is 

 a- solitary animal inhabiting the depths of the 

 forests. The strange and weird little animal represented 

 in our first illustration is an inhabitant of southern India, 

 and is commonly known as the slender loris. It 

 differs from the common loris by its much larger eyes, 

 which are separated from one another only by a very 

 thin partition, as well as by its slender body and limbs ; 

 and in consequence of these and other points of difference 

 is referred by naturalists to a distinct genus, of which it is 

 the sole representative. This beautiful little creature is 

 about the size of a squirrel and is of a yellowish-brown 

 colour. It occurs in the forests, usually in pairs. Sir 

 E. Tennent observes that " the naturally slow motion of 

 its limbs enables the loris to approach its prey so 

 stealthily that it seizes birds before they can be alarmed 

 by its presence. During the day, the one which I kept 

 was usually asleep in the strange position represented in 

 the figure ; its perch firmly grasped with both hands, its 

 back curved into a ball of soft fur, and its head hidden 

 deep between its legs. The singularly large and intense 

 eyes of the loris have attracted the attention of the 

 Singiialese, who capture the creature for the purpose of 

 extracting them as charms and love-potions, and they are 

 said to effect this by holding the little animal to the fire 

 till the eyeballs burst." I once brought a pair of these 

 little creatures from Madras to Calcutta, and during the 

 voyage they lived chiefiy on plantains and bread-and-milk. 



In West Africa the slow-lemurs are represented by the 

 potto and the smaller awantibo, both of which differ from 

 the loris by the reduction of the index finger to a mere 

 stump, and nlso by the presence of a listinct tail, which 

 is of greater length in the former than in the latter species. 

 These animals resemble their Asiatic cousins in their 

 habits, but are even more deliberate in their movements ; 



and while the potto appears to be not uncommon, the 

 awantibo is of extreme rarity. 



The whole of the preceding species are included by 

 naturalists in a single family, but the two following repre- 

 sentatives of the p,roup are so different from all the others 

 that each is made the type of a distinct family. The first 

 of these two aberrant creatures is the weird tarsier, of the 



Fig. 2. — The Tarsier. (From Oruilleuiai'd's "Cruise of the Marchesa.")* 



forests of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and some of the 

 Philippine islands. This animal derives its name from 

 its greatly elongated ankle {tiirsiis), and is rather smaller 

 than an ordinary squirrel, with large ears, enormous eyes, 

 and a long tufted tail. Dr. Guillemard, who when in 

 Celebes was fortunate enough to obtain a living tarsier, 

 writes that " these little creatures, which are B.rboreal 

 and of nocturnal habits, are about the size of a small rat, 

 and are covered wiih remarkably thick woolly fur, which 

 is very short. The tail is long and covered with hair at 

 the root and tip, while the middle portion of it is nearly 

 bare. The eyes are enormous, and indeed seem, together 

 with the equally large ears, to constitute the greater 

 part of the face, for the nose and jaw are very small, 

 and the latter is set on, like that of a pug dog, almost 

 at a right angle. The hind limb at once attracts 



: attention from the gre.it length of the tarsal bones, and 

 the hand is equally noticeable for its length, the curious 



I claws with which it is provided, and the extraordinary 

 disc-shaped pulps on the palmar surface of the fingers, 

 which probably enable the animal to retain its hold in 

 almost any position. This weird-looking little creature 

 we were unable to keep long in captivity, for we could not 

 get it to eat the cockroaches which were almost the only 

 food with which we could supply it." 



Our brief account of the lemurs appropriately closes 

 with the strangest of them all — the now well-known aye- 

 aye of Madagascar. This remarkable animal, whose 

 systematic position was long a puzzle to naturalists, was 

 discovered as far back as 1780, but for eighty years after 

 that was only known in Europe by the single specimen 

 then obtained. The aye-aye differs from all other lemurs in 



* Messrs. Murray have kindly lent us tliis llnure. 



