346 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



are extremely attenuated. The animal therefore looks 

 like a very small dwarf (about the size of a squirrel) 

 reduced almost to a skeleton. It inhabits only Southern 

 India and Ceylon. Its index finger is exceedingly short, 

 but its eyes are very large indeed. It is regarded 

 by the natives of India as a remedy for ophthalmia, on 

 which account it constitutes an article of commerce in 

 the bazaars of Madras. It is a slow-moving creature, 

 strictly nocturnal, and feeding on young shoots and 

 leaves, insects, lizards, eggs, and small birds. It is also 

 said to be extremely fond of honey. 



Another eastern lemuroid is the slow loris, which 

 ranges from Cochin China to Sumatra and Borneo. It 

 is generally hke the slender loris, except that it is much 

 stouter. Excessively slow in its movements and sleeping 

 by day, it creeps about at night in the forests it inhabits, 

 never jumping or running, but always clinging with 

 great tenacity to the branches. The arrangement of 

 the tendons of its feet is such that the mere weight of 

 its body suflLces to keep its toes strongly bent, and 

 firmly clasping any object from which it may hang. 

 Its food consists of fruit, young shoots, insects, and 

 birds, and it will seize such of the last as its noiseless 

 approach at night may enable it to surprise when they 

 are at roost. 



Two allied kinds exist in Africa, one of these, the 

 angwantibo, inhabits Old Calabar. The other is the potto, 

 which is interesting as being one of the first lemuroids 

 discovered. One, Bosman, a traveller, met with it during 

 his voyage to Guinea, and described it in the year 1705. 

 After that, it was never again seen by a European for 

 twenty yeai-s, and it was only first fully described in 

 1830. Both these African forms are very Hke the slow 

 loris, and resemble it in their habits, but they both have 



