168 LEMURS 



mole, and is streaked with black and yellow, as are indeed the 

 young of other species. The spiny tenrec is much like our 

 European hedgehog, as it is covered with strong spines, and can 

 roll itself up into_ a ball when attacked. Another species, 

 called Sora by the natives, is about five inches long. A female 

 of this kind was one day brought to us for sale, together with 

 eight or nine tiny young ones only a few days old. These were 

 prettily banded with yellow and brown stripes, their hair being 

 still soft. They were about the size of a large egg, and a most 

 curious little family of creatures they looked. The rice tenrec 

 inhabits the plains between the two lines of forest, and does 

 immense injury to the rice crops by burrowing into the earth 

 and rooting up the young plants. Another species (and genus) 

 is strikingly modified for aquatic life, having webbed toes, and 

 a thick and powerful tail. The smallest species known is only 

 two inches long, with a tail of three inches. Small as the 

 animals of this family are, they are remarkable from the fact 

 that in no equally confined area are they represented by so many 

 peculiar types as in Madagascar. But it is still more remark- 

 able that the only other known genus of Centetidse is found in 

 the West India Islands ; two portions of the same family being 

 separated from each other by an extensive continent as well as 

 by a deep ocean. 



These sketches of the forest would be very incomplete without 

 saying something about what are the most characteristic 

 animals of Madagascar viz. the lemurs ; for though there are 

 a few allied forms found in Africa on the one side, and in 

 Southern Asia on the other, this island is the home of Lemuroicl 

 animals. It was indeed proposed to call a supposed former 

 continent in the Indian Ocean by the name of " Lemuria." It 

 must be said, however, that there are few of them to be seen in 

 the neighbourhood of the sanatorium, although the cries of 

 some may be heard, a strange long-drawn-out wailing sound, as 

 if of people in distress, or children crying. Yet it was always 

 a pleasant sound to me, as a sign of life, and probably of enjoy- 

 ment, in these active and harmless denizens of the woods. 

 There are no fewer than thirty-nine different species of these 

 animals living in Madagascar, of which twenty-nine are the true 

 lemurs, while the other ten are closely allied to them and are 

 lemur-like (Lemuroida). The eastern and north-eastern forests 



