152 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



lemur, or a modification thereof, obtains in all the true 

 lemurs, must wait the acquisition of additional fresh 

 specimens of the hand ; but in that species at all events 

 it seems certain that these pads have a kind of sucker- 

 like action, which must greatly increase the firmness of their 

 owner's hold on the boughs it grasps. 



Apparently this type of palm-structure culminates in the 

 curious little tarsier of the Malay Islands, in which the long 

 and slender toes terminate in round sucker-like discs ; 

 similar discs occurring on the toes of the hind-foot. 

 Unfortunately I have had no opportunity of taking the 

 palm-impression of a recently deceased tarsier, and it will 

 probably be long before such a chance occurs, so that I 

 can say nothing as to the mode of arrangement of the 

 papillary ridges. 



It may be added that the finger- and toe-pads of those 

 curious lizards commonly known as geckos are likewise 

 modified into adhesive discs. But in this case the sucking 

 action is caused by the skin being raised into a series of 

 parallel plates, and as palmar eminences, as well as papillary 

 ridges, are wanting, the structure is not apparently strictly 

 comparable with what obtains in the tarsier and the lemurs. 



But even the foregoing by no means exhausts the 

 subject of palmar and plantar eminences. Any one of my 

 readers who takes the trouble to examine the feet of a 

 cat, a dog, or a rabbit will find a number of bare elevated 

 pads, covered with rough granular skin, interspersed 

 among the generally hairy surface. In all cases, both in 

 the fore and hind limb, one of these bare pads will be 

 found occupying the lower surface of the terminal joint 

 of each toe, lying immediately below the claw. And it 

 will be quite obvious that these correspond to the pattern- 

 bearing eminences occupying the balls of the thumb and 



