494 THE AYE-AYE. 



refer it to the order of Primates, although its general appearance and 

 its system of dentition caused it at first to be taken for a kind of 

 large squirrel ; while, on the other hand, the form and disposition of 

 its thin fingers, and the development of its nails, liken it to the sloths. 

 This animal is the Aye-Aye, or Cheiromys Madagascariensis. The 

 characters which have determined its annexations to the order of 

 Primates are, principally, the presence of opposable thumbs on the 

 hind-paws ; the terminal position of the nostrils ; the oblique direc- 

 tion of the eyes, and the absence of a vertical fissure on the upper 

 lip. Its habits are not well known ; but it is a burrowing animal, 

 very slothful, and goes abroad at night. It has large flat ears, like a 

 bat's, and a tail like a squirrel's ; but its peculiarity is the middle 

 toe or finger of the fore-foot, whose two last joints are very long, 

 slender, and destitute of hair. From nose to tail it measures about 

 eighteen inches, and its general colour is a pale ferruginous brown, 

 mixed with gray. 



Sonnerat, who discovered the aye-aye in his expedition to 

 Madagascar, at the close of the last century, succeeded in obtaining a 

 couple of specimens, which he kept alive for two months. "I 

 nourished them," he says, "upon cooked rice, and they make use, in 

 eating, of the thin fingers of their fore-feet, just as the Chinese do of 

 their chopsticks. They seemed always drowsy, resting with the head 

 placed between the fore-paws, and it was only by shaking them 

 several times we could get them to move." This torpid condition, 

 however, was it the effect of confinement or of natural apathy ? If 

 due to the latter, it would be another point of approximation between 

 the aye-aye and the sloths, which some naturalists have also 

 inclined to rank among the Primates. 



Other authors have placed those latter quadrupeds in an order 

 apart, under the name of " Tardigrades ; " but most scientific zoolo- 

 gists now classify them with the Edentata, and form them into the 

 family of Bradypes or Bradypidre. Undoubtedly the sloth, or ai', is 

 an animal of curious and uncouth appearance ; in general conforma- 

 tion not unlike the bear, to which he also approaches in the form of 



