966 MR. ST. GEORGE MIVART ON THE LEMURID.E. [DeC. 12, 



and Microcebus, though reposing mainly, if not exclusivelj', on a 

 few cranial and dental characters. Perhaps, however, the newly 

 described species M. coquereli* may furnish grounds for the aban- 

 donment of this distinction. 



I find in C.furcifer a distinct os intermedium and the ulnar con- 

 dyle of the humerus perforated. 



There remain to be noticed the three forms described by Dr. 

 Gray under the names (1) Galago niinor-\ {ov Lepilemur murinusX), 

 (-) Cheirogaleus smithii^, and (3) Cheirogaleus typicus\\. 



The first of these, tlie skull of which has been figured in the 

 ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society'^, agrees completely with 

 Dr. Peters's M. myoxinus, except in the reduplication of the palatal 

 defects of ossification, and in a slightly less degree of backward pro- 

 longation of the palate. It also agrees with M. myoxiiius in points 

 by which that species differs from M. pusillus, and which have been 

 enumerated above. 



The tarsus I have not been able to examine ; but it, no dbubt, is 

 also similar. 



The two skins of Galago minor (my Microcebus timior) in the 

 British Museum agree with 31. myoxinus, and differ from M. pu- 

 sillus, in the greater size of the ears; and Dr. Gray remarks**, 

 "The figure of Dr. Peters agrees pretty well with our specimen; 

 but the whole colour of the fur is rather darker, and the ears are 

 larger." The latter difference is trifling indeed, considering the 

 contraction of the ears in drying — a distortion the frequent occur- 

 rence of which, as also of its converse " stretching," Dr. Gray pro- 

 ceeds almost immediately afterwards to notice. 



M. minor, however, is very much less red than M. myoxinus, being 

 a " pale grey," whereas the usual colour in the last-named species, 

 according to Dr. Peters, is rusty brown ; aud this difference is so 

 striking that for the present it will be better to treat these forms as 

 specifically distinct. 



As regards Cheirogaleus smithii, the typical specimen (which is 

 in the British Museum) differs from M. myoxinus and agrees with 

 M. pusillus in the following points : — in the smaller size of the ears, 

 and in having the first upper premolar rather less vertically extended 

 than the second. It may therefore be the case that C. smithii is 

 nothing else than M. pusillus {Le Rat de Madagascar) — and the 

 more probably so, as Dr. Gray himself remarks ff that BufFon's 

 figure of that animal well represents his (Dr. Gray's) C. smithii. 

 On the other hand, in C. smithii the upper incisors are as unequal 

 as in M. minor or as in M. myoxinus. 



Dr. Gray describes the type of his O. smithii as being " pale bay,'' 



* Eeclierches sur la Fauiie de Madagascar, par M. H. Schlegel et M. Fran9ois 

 P. L. PoUen, (Leyden, 1867) p. \2, pi. ti. 

 t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1842, x. p. 257. 

 \ P. Z. S. 1863, p. 143. § P. Z. S. 1863, p. 143. 



II P. Z. S. 1863, p. 142. 



^ 1860, p. 144, and 1864, p. 61.5. 



** P. Z. S. 1863, p. 144. ft P. Z. S. 186,3, p. 14:5. 



