618 MR. ST. GEORGE MIVART ON THE CRANIA_[Noy. 22, 
even by M. Isid. G. St.-Hilaire, who has placed it beside Galago in 
his group Galagina*, and last of all by Dr. Gray+, who has made it 
aspecies of the genus Galago, under the name of G. madagascariensis, 
calling attention, however, to the shortness of the foot as represented 
in Buffon’s figure. But, according to Dr. Peters, so far from ap- 
proaching the Galagos more than does his M. myozinus, the tarsus 
of Geoffroy’s L. pusillus is proportionally shorter, the total length 
from the point of the snout to the root of the tail being 140 milli- 
metres in the former, 145 in the latter, while the length of the foot 
in each, subtracting that of the fourth toe, is 203 millimetres in M. 
myoxinus, but only 17 in L. pusillus. 
None of the differences hitherto recorded appear to me to warrant 
the location of these two forms in separate generat or even sub- 
genera; unless therefore the upper incisor teeth, the first upper pre- 
molar, the structure of the tarsus, or some other part of the organi- 
zation of the L. pusillus of Geoffroy should, on further examination, 
present differences in structure which have escaped Dr. Peters’s obser- 
vation §, both forms must rank as species of the genus Microcebus, 
as also the Lepilemur murinus of Dr. Gray ; and the three species may 
be termed, respectively, Microcebus pusillus, M. mycxinus, and M. 
minor (the Lepilemur murinus|| of Dr. Gray). But, on the other 
hand, should hitherto unnoticed but important differences be found 
to exist between M. pustllus and the other two, then a new generic 
name will be required for M. myoxinus, M. minor, and their allies, as 
M. pusillus is the species to which the term Microcebus appertains. 
Of the three forms classed by Dr. Gray in his genus Cheirogaleus, 
two only are represented in the national collection, there being one 
stuffed specimen, with the skull inside it, of C. ¢typicus, and another 
similar one of C. smithii, also the specimen in spirits before spoken 
of as closely resembling Dr. Peters’s Microcebus. 
The two stuffed specimens (which are the types of the two species 
respectively) differ from M. myoxinus and M. minor in the much 
smaller size of the ears ; but, as Dr. Gray justly remarks, “‘ The ears 
are very apt to be unnaturally stretched in the stuffing, or the con- 
verse and allowed to shrink in the drying”. Moreover it should 
be remembered that, in some species at least of the family, the ears 
are exceedingly contractile**. 
* Catalogue des Primates, p. 79. t Proc. Zool Soc. 1863, p. 149. 
{ M. de Blainville notices that it has seven lumbar vertebree, thus agreeing in 
this also with M. myoxinus (‘ Ostéographie,’ Lemur, p. 12). 
§ According to M. Gervais (Mammiféres, p. 173), the L. pusi/lus of Geoffroy 
has three pairs of mammz ; according to Dr. Peters, in M. myoxinus there are 
but two pairs! 
|| To prevent confusion (as this species is not the LZ. mwrinus of M. de Blain- 
ville), I think it better to restore the specific name originally given to it by Dr. Gray 
in the Ann. & Mag. of Nat. Hist. 1842. 
@ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 144. 
** This peculiarity was, as far as I know, first noticed in a large species of 
Galago described by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, and named by him G. monteiri. It had 
“the power of turning its ears back, and folding them up when at rest. When 
moving about, or in search of food, they spread out and stood upward and for- 
ward.”— Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 231. 
