TRUE LEMURS, 



213 



White-fronted 

 Lemur. 



cheeks and the sides of the forehead are grey. There is considerable individual 

 variation in the width of the black band across the head. 



The white-fronted lemur (L. albifrons) appears to be restricted 

 to th e north-east coast of Madagascar. It is mainly distinguished 

 from the allied species by its colour ; its most distinctive feature being a broad 

 band of white woolly hairs extending across the forehead, and including the base 

 of the ears, the cheeks, and part of the throat and neck. The prevailing colour of 

 the back and flanks is a grizzled brown, tinged with red ; the long muzzle and 

 face, together with the hands and feet, and the end of the tail being black. The 

 under-parts and inner surfaces of the limbs are whitish-grey. This pretty lemur 



/4 



THE MUNGOOSE LEMUR ($ nat. size). 



was first described by the French naturalist Geoffrey St. Hilaire ; and was exhibited 

 in the London Zoological Gardens as far back as 1830. 



Black-fronted This (L. nigrifrons) is another closely allied lemur, also first made 

 Lemur. known to science by the naturalist last mentioned. In comparing it 

 with the preceding species, E. T. Bennett, who had the opportunity of seeing living 

 examples of both, observes that " their size, it is true, is nearly equal, and there is 

 little if any difference in their form ; but their colours, invariable as we have 

 hitherto found them, furnish sufficient ground for regarding them as distinct. The 

 present animal has the elongated muzzle of the last, but the black colour embraces 

 in it the forehead and sides of the face, as well as the base of the muzzle ; and 

 the hair on the former parts, instead of being long and woolly, is short, smooth, 

 and even. While the black is thus extended backwards over the head, it is bounded 

 on the fore part of the muzzle, which instead of being uniform in colour, as in the 



