MONKEYS— AFFINITIES AND DISTRIBUTION 



177 



enable it to discover its prey. The Tarsier (genus Tarsius) 

 or spectre-lemur, of the Malay islands, is a small long- 

 tailed nocturnal lemur, remarkable for the curious develop- 

 ment of the hind feet, which have two of the toes very 

 short and with sharp claws, while the others have nails, 

 the third toe being exceedingly long and slender, though 

 the thumb is very large, giving the feet a very irregular 

 and outr^ appearance. Even more curious is the Aj^e-aye 

 of Madagascar (Chiromys), the most remarkable of all the 

 lemurs. This animal has very large ears and a squirrel- 

 like tail, with long spreading hair. It has large curved 



F)G. 41. — GRAY LCRis {Nt/cticebus cinerev.s). 



incisor teeth, which add to its squirrel-like appearance and 

 caused the early naturalists to class it among the rodents. 

 But its most remarkable character is found in its fore-feet 

 or hands, the fingers of which are all very long and armed 

 with sharp curved claws, but one of them, the second, is 

 wonderfully slender, being not half the thickness of the 

 others. This curious combination of characters shows that 

 the aye-aye is a very specialized form — that is, one whose 

 organisation has been slowly modified to fit it for a 

 peculiar mode of life. From information x'eceived from its 



VOL. I. X 



