VI.] LEMUROIDS. 2IQ 



the whole animal might be compared in size to a mandrill. The 

 skull of this species is characterised by the great elongation of 

 the face, and in several respects shows resemblances to that 

 of the European Oligocene genus Adapts] although the upper 

 molar teeth are peculiar in having tritubercular crowns, whereas 

 those of all modern lemurs are quadrangular. There is consider- 

 able reason to believe that the giant lemur was actually living in 

 the middle of the seventeenth century, an otherwise unknown 

 animal being described by De Flacourt in 1658 under the name of 

 tretretretre, or tratratratra, which accords fairly well with the fossil 

 remains. The giant lemur is, however, not the sole extinct 

 member of the group from Madagascar, since the hinder part of a 



FlG. 50. SKULL OF AYE- AYE. 



skull indicates another, but at present unnamed genus, apparently 

 allied to Hapalemur. The last of the Malagasy lemurs is the 

 singular aye-aye (Chiromys); a creature representing by itself a 

 separate family, broadly distinguished from all other members of 

 the suborder by the curious resemblance of the dentition to that of 

 the rodents, to say nothing of the extreme elongation and slender- 

 ness of the middle finger of the hand. 



Apart from the single musk-shrew, the Malagasy insectivores 

 all belong to the group with tritubercular upper molar teeth, 

 which, as already mentioned, is now confined to the more southern 

 portions of the world, and is evidently a very primitive one. The 

 small mouse-like creature (Geogale auritd] representing the Pota- 



