PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE AYE-AYE. 35 
for obtaining further insight into the affinities of the Aye-aye. The skull and such 
limb-bones as were in Sonnerat’s stuffed specimen were carefully extracted and pre- 
pared. The skull of the Aye-aye is figured in the first edition of the ‘ Régne Animal,’ 
in the plate (pl. 2) containing those of anomalous quadrupeds ; and M. de Blainville, in 
the subsequent account of these specimens in his ‘ Ostéographie,’ alludes to them as 
due to these researches of his great predecessor. It was scant justice, however, to say 
that, in both editions of the ‘ Régne Animal,’ Cuvier, while ranking the Aye-aye 
among the Rodentia, restricts himself to indicating its transitional character to the 
Lemurs’; for, in the description of the plate (figs. 1, 2, 3) in which the skull is 
figured, Cuvier states,—‘‘ To the teeth of a Rodent the Aye-aye unites a head very 
similar to that of the Quadrumana, principally in regard to the zygomatic arch, the 
orbit,” 2 &c. 
It was through a mistake of M. de Blainville’s that his astonishment was excited, which 
he so emphatically expresses, by Cuvier’s hesitation to class the Aye-aye with the Lemurs 
after having obtained a knowledge of the tarsal structure. Had the ankle bones, tigured 
by De Blainville in pl. 5 of his ‘Ostéographie des Lemurs,’ been actually extracted by 
desire of Baron Cuvier from the skin of the Chiromys, as stated in the above-cited part 
of that work (p. 46), one can scarcely doubt but that the great naturalist would 
have recognized the full force of their indications of its affinity. As I shall afterwards 
show, however, those tarsal bones do not belong to the Aye-aye, but to a true Galago— 
probably Otolicnus crassicaudatus, Wagn., of which Cuvier figures a stuffed specimen in 
pl. 1. fig. 1 of the same volume of the ‘ Régne Animal’ in which the figure of the Aye-aye’s 
skull appears. I suspect it to have been from the skin of the ‘Grand Galago”’ there figured 
that the bones of the leg and foot referred to below had been extracted *. 
By the figure and brief notice of the Aye-aye’s skull, Cuvier, in fact, supplied the 
first rectification of the ground derived by Buffon, from the head of the Aye-aye, for 
approximating it to the Squirrels; and it has the more significance, in regard to the 
value of the affinity supposed to be indicated by the dentition, through the presence of 
1 «M. Cuvier ait persisté, dans les deux éditions de son ‘Régne Animal,’ 4 ranger l’Aye-aye parmis les 
Rongeurs, A cdté des Ecureuils, en se bornant dire qu’il fait le passage aux Makis.’’—De Blainville, op. cit. p. 27. 
2 « Planche ii. figs. 1, 2, 3, ’ Aye-aye (Cheiromys, C.), qui, ides dents de Rongeurs, unit une téte fort semblable 
4 celle des quadrumanes, principalement pour ce qui regarde l’arcade zygomatique, l’orbite,” &c. (Régne Animal, 
ed. 1. tom. iv. 1817, p. 181; ed. 2. tom. iii. 1830, p. 429). 
° «© M. Laurillard m’a remis, en outre, les quatre os principaux du métatarse, c’est-a-dire, l’astragale, le 
caleanéum, le scaphoide et le cuboide, qui avaient, sans doute, été tirés de la peau bourrée de la collection 
zoologique, sur la demande de M. Cuvier. Or, & eux seuls ils devaient suffire pour determiner la place de 
lAye-aye 4 cété du Tarsier et des Galagos ; car le calcanéum et le scaphoide offrent la méme forme et le méme 
allongement singulier qui a déterminé Daubenton 4 donner au premier de ces animaux le nom sous lequel il est 
encore désigné ; ce que j’avais suppos¢ autrefois d’aprés le seul examen de l’individu monté. La figure que nous 
en donnons dans la planche (v.) de notre Ostéographie des Lemurs suffira pour mettre cette assertion hors de 
doute ; aussi est-il véritablement étonnant que M. Cuvier, qui avait 4 sa disposition ce tarse,” &e.—De Blain- 
ville, ‘“Mém. sur l’Aye-aye,”’ p. 27. 
F2 
