SLOW-PACED LEMUR. 35 



was usually contented with plain water. When the sun 

 was quite set, he became amazingly active. He was 

 more especially fond of grasshoppers; and passed the 

 whole night, in the heat of summer, in prowling after 

 them. When one of these insects alighted within his 

 reach, his eyes immediately kindled with uncommon 

 animation, and drawing himself back to spring on it 

 with greater force, he seized the prey with both his 

 paws, and held it in one Mobile he devoured it. For other 

 purposes he would sometimes use all his paws indiffer- 

 ently as hands. The posture of which he seemed fondest 

 was to cling with all his four feet to the upper wires of 

 his ample cage, his body being inverted : in the evening 

 he usually stood erect for many minutes, playing on the 

 wires , with his fingers, and rapidly moving his body 

 from side to side, as if he had found the utility of exer - 

 cise in his unnatural state of confinement. A little be- 

 fore daybreak he seemed to solicit my attention, and if 

 I presented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it 

 with great gentleness ; but eagerly took fruit when I 

 offered it, though he seldom ate much at his morning's 

 repast. When the day brought back Ms night, his eyes 

 lost their lustre and their strength, and he composed 

 himself to profound sleep. My little friend," concludes 

 sir William, " was, on the whole, very engaging ; and 

 when he was found lifeless, in the same posture in which 

 he would naturally have slept, I consoled myself with 

 believing that he had died without pain, and that he 

 had lived with as much pleasure as he could have en- 

 joyed in a state of captivity." A living specimen in 

 the menagerie of the Zoological Society has furnished 

 some additional traits in its character. '' In its motions 

 it is excessively slow and languid. When on the ground 

 its posture is constrained, and apparently unnatural, and 

 it rather drags itself along than walks. On a tree, or 

 in mounting the bars of its cage, it seems more at ease, 

 yet still moves with slow and cautious regularity ; grasp- 

 ing a branch or a bar lightly with one of its fore paws, 

 it gradually fixes the other, and then advances its hinder 



