THE TARSIER. 



ftLONG with Tagals, Ygorottes, 

 and other queer human beings 

 Uncle Sam has annexed in the 

 Philippine islands, says the 

 Chronicle, is the tarsier, an animal 

 which is now declared to be the grand- 

 father of man. 



They say the tarsier is the ancestor of 

 the common monkey, which is the an- 

 cestor of the anthropoid ape, which 

 some claim as the ancestor of man. 



A real tarsier will soon make his ap- 

 pearance at the national zoological 

 park. His arrival is awaited with in- 

 tense interest. 



Monsieur Tarsier is a very gifted ani- 

 mal. He derives his name from the 

 enormous development of the tarsus, or 

 ankle bones of his legs. His eyes are 

 enormous, so that he can see in the 

 dark. They even cause him to be 

 called a ghost. His fingers and toes 

 are provided with large pads, which 

 enable him to hold on to almost any- 

 thing. 



Professor Hubrecht of the University 

 of Utrecht has lately announced that 

 Monsieur Tarsier is no less a personage 

 than a "link" connecting Grandfather 

 Monkey with his ancestors. Thus the 

 scale of the evolution theorists would 

 be changed by Professor Hubrecht to 

 run: Man, ape, monkey, tarsier, and so 

 on, tarsier appearing as the great-grand- 

 father of mankind. 



Tarsier may best be described as 

 having a face like an owl and a body, 

 limbs, and tail like those of a monkey. 

 His sitting height is about that of a 

 squirrel. As his enormous optics 

 would lead one to suppose, he cuts 

 capers in the night and sleeps in the 

 daytime, concealed usually in aban- 

 doned clearings, where new growth has 

 sprung up to a height of twenty feet or 

 more. Very often he sleeps in a stand- 

 ing posture, grasping the lower stem 

 of a small tree with his long and 

 slender fingers and toes. During his 

 nightly wanderings he utters a squeak 



like that of a monkey. During the 

 day the pupils of his eyes contract to 

 fine lines, but after dark expand until 

 they fill most of the irises. From his 

 habit of feeding only upon insects he 

 has a strong, bat-like odor. 



John Whitehead, who has spent the 

 last three years studying the animals 

 of the Philippines, foreshadows the 

 probable behavior of the tarsier when 

 he arrives at the national "zoo." The 

 Philippine natives call the little crea- 

 ture " magou." 



" In Samar," says Mr. Whitehead, in 

 a report just received at the Smith- 

 sonian, " where at different times I 

 kept several tarsiers alive, I found 

 them very docile and easily managed 

 during the day. They feed freely off 

 grasshoppers, sitting on their haunches 

 on my hand. When offered an insect 

 the tarsier would stare for a short time 

 with its most wonderful eyes, then 

 slowly bend forward, and, with a 

 sudden dash, would seize the insect 

 with both hands and instantly carry it 

 to its mouth, shutting its eyes and 

 screwing up its tiny face in a most 

 whimsical fashion. The grasshopper 

 was then quickly passed through the 

 sharp little teeth, the kicking legs be- 

 ing held with both hands. 



"When the insect was beyond fur- 

 ther mischief the large eyes of the 

 tarsier would open and the legs and 

 wings were then bitten off, while the 

 rest of the body was thoroughly mas- 

 ticated. My captive would also drink 

 fresh milk from a spoon. After the 

 sun had set this little animal became 

 most difficult to manage, escaping 

 when possible and making tremendous 

 jumps from chair to chair. When on 

 the floor it bounded about like a min- 

 iature kangaroo, traveling about the 

 room on its hind legs with the tail 

 stretched out and curved upward, utter- 

 ing peculiar, shrill, monkeylike squeaks 

 and biting quite viciously when the op- 

 portunity offered." 



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