42 SUB-FAMILIES OF LEMURS. 



most diminutive of all these active little animals is the Dwarf 

 lemur {Microcebus Smithii); this lives on the tops of the 

 highest trees, making a nest very much like that of a bird. 

 Its food consists of fruit and insects, and probably also honey. 

 It is exceedingly pugnacious. Tor these particulars I am 

 indebted to Mr. Shaw's " Notes on Four Species of Lemurs, 

 specimens of which were brought alive to England in 1878." 

 {Froc. Zool. Soc, February 4, 1879.) 



Madagascar may be called the head-quarters of the Lemu- 

 ridse; and of the four sub-families into which the family 

 is divided (embracing the true lemurs, the typical animals 

 of Professor St. George Mivart's sub-order Lemuroidfea), two 

 — by far the largest — belong exclusively to the island, and 

 contain six genera and thirty-four species ; but there are two 

 other sub-families of allied forms which are found in other 

 countries. One of these (Nycticebidse) comprises some small 

 short-tailed animals, called slow lemurs, found in India and 

 China, Borneo and Java ; another similar animal, the loris, in- 

 habits South-East India and Ceylon; another, the potto, is found 

 in West Africa, at Sierra Leone ; and another, the angwantibo, 

 is also found in West Africa, at Old Calabar. The meaning of 

 the extraordinary fact that animals so nearly allied to the 

 lemur are found in such remote regions both east and west of 

 Madagascar, we shall discuss further on in connection with 

 the other strange anomalies in geographical distribution, which 

 are shown both by the relations of other mammals found in 

 the island, and also by many of the birds, reptiles, and in- 

 sects. There is a fourth sub-family of Lemuridoe, the galagos, 

 not however so nearly allied to the true lemurs as those just 

 mentioned, which is found all over the central portions of the 

 African continent, from Senegal and Fernando Po to Zanzibar 

 and Natal. 



M. Grandidier has pointed out with regard to several 

 genera of the lemurs, that they have embryological features 

 which render them very distinct from the other quadrumana, 

 the placenta being altogether different from the discoid 

 form common to other members of the order. This fact, 

 together with a number of other anatomical differences, 

 induces him to think that they recj^uire to be placed in a 



