272 Miscellaneous. 



attention of zoologists. This mammal, the affinities of which have 

 been long disputed, is still very rare. Travellers have scarcely ever 

 studied it in the living state; and the observations they have been 

 able to make upon its habits and manners are almost insignificant ; 

 we therefore think it useful to indicate some new particulars as to 

 its mode of life. 



The aye-aye constructs in trees true nests resembling enormous 

 ball-shaped birds' nests ; and it is in the interior of these construe-, 

 tions that the female brings forth her young and nourishes it. We 

 have just received one of these nests found by M. Soumagne, hono- 

 rary consul of France in Madagascar, in the belt of forest situated 

 halfway up the eastern slope of the great granitic mountain mass a 

 short distance from Tamative. It is made with much care and art 

 at the fork of several large branches of a dicotyledonous tree ; its 

 outer surface is formed of large rolled-up leaves of the Ravincda (or 

 traveller's tree), which constitute a sort of impermeable covering 

 and protect the interior, in which there is an accumulation of small 

 twigs and dry leaves. The aperture is narrow and placed to one side. 

 M. Soumag-ne surprised a female with her young one in this nest. 



The most highly organized species of the Lemurine group (the 

 Indrisinae and true lemurs) alw^ays carry their young attached to 

 the back or the breast, where it can easily reach the pectoral mammae 

 of the mother. The lower representatives of the order, however, 

 are furnished with several pairs of mammae, and they do not carry 

 their young in this manner; they deposit them either in holes of 

 trees {LcpUemures and Chirogalei) or in true nests (Microcehi). Each 

 litter consists of several young, which remain for a considerable 

 time confined to their retreat, Avithout being able to accompany their 

 parents. One of us has examined the nest of Microcehus myoxlnus. 

 It resembles on a small scale that of a crow, and is composed of 

 small twigs interlaced, in the midst of which there is a depression 

 with a bed of hairs, in which the young repose. 



In its mode of nidification, therefore, the aye-aye closely approaches 

 the more degraded representatives of the order Lemurina, and 

 departs from the Indrisinse and true Lemurs. — Comptes Rendus, 

 Jan. 22, 1877, p. 196. 



Note on the Phenomena of Digestion and on the Structure of the 

 Digestive Apparatus in the Phalangida *. By Felix Plateau. 

 (Abstract by the author.) 



The ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' have already 

 given abstracts of several of my memoirs relating to the phenomena 

 of digestion in the Articulata f. The present memoir is, properly 

 speaking, only a detached chapter of a long series of researches on 



* Bulletin de I'Academie Royale de Belgique, 45* annee, 2« s^r. 

 tome xlii. p. 719, 1876. 



t Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 4th series, vol. xvi. p. 152, 

 (1875), vol. xviii. p. 355 (1876), vol. xviii. p. 437 (1876). 



