200 LEMURS. 



thumb and great toe : but, curiously enough, in some of them the index finger of 

 the hand is rudimentary. They may or may not have tails, liut these are never 

 prehensile, althougli, as in some of tlic marniosrts. they may lie maikrd by alternate 

 dark and light rings. 



A point of resemblance to the monkeys and apes is sho'\\n Ijy the number of 

 incisor, or front teeth, being very frequently two on each side of both jaws, in 

 place of the three which are so commonly present in other Jrammals. In the 

 apes and monkeys, however, the central pair of incisors in the upper jaw are in 



SKELETON OK SQrrRREr.-MO>-KEY (1), OF MOXGOOSE LEMUR (2), AXD OF SLENDER LORIS (3). 



contact with one another, while in the lemurs they are almo.st invariably separated 

 by a gap in the middle line. This affords a ready means of distinguishing the .skull 

 of a lemur, at a single glance from the .skulls of almost all other Mammals except 

 bats and some of the Insectivores. The lower front, or incisor, teeth of the 

 lemurs shelve forwanls, after the manner we have already mentioned as character- 

 istic of one group of the American monkeys (p. 173). 



Many lemurs are ]Hirely nocturnal animals, and it was probably from this cir- 

 cumstance, coupled with their silent habits and stealth}- movements, that Linnaeus 

 was induced to give them the name by which they are now universally known. 

 It is, perhaps, almost superfluous to mention that the name lemur is taken from 

 the Latin term lemures, which, together with that of larvcc, was applied by the 



