36 ANIMALS IN MENAGERIES. 



hands with equal slowness and precision, never quitting 

 its hold with ,the one until it has ascertained the firm- 

 ness of its grasp with the other." * 



In its dimensions this curious animal is about the 

 size of a small cat_, but it is entirely destitute of any tail. 

 Its body is completely covered, except upon the face and 

 paws, with long, close-set, woolly hair, of an elegant pale 

 brown or mouse colour : the eyes are yellowish brown, 

 very large, and so extremely prominent, as to appear in 

 the living animal hke perfect hemispheres ; they are sur- 

 rounded by well defined circles of dark brown, which 

 are united above the nose, and are not unlike a pair of 

 spectacles ; these circles are connected with a band of 

 the same colour, which is continued along the centre of 

 the back. 



The Red Lemur. 



Lemur ruber, Peron and Le Sueur, Geoffroy. MakI roux, F, 

 Cuvier. {Fig. 5.) 



The two indefatigable naturalists, MM. Peron and 

 Le Sueur, who accompanied one of the French circum- 

 navigating expeditions, were the first to bring home a 

 skin of this very rare animal. Mr. Griffiths notices 

 another specimen formerly in Bullock's Museum, and a 

 living individual seems to have been once at Exeter 

 Change, and more recently another has been recorded as 

 belonging to the Zoological Society. It appears, there- 

 fore, not to be a species of unusual rarity, even in this 

 country. The French menagerie seems to have had 

 it more than once, and it is consequently figured and 

 described in the valuable work of M. Fred. Cuvier. 

 Notwithstanding, however, these many opportunities of 

 attentively observing and recording its peculiar traits of 

 character, at least in confinement, our ma erials are poor 

 and scanty. Mr. Griffiths, alluding, perhaps, to the spe- 

 cimen he saw alive, observes, that it is easily tamed, and 

 of a gentle disposition ; but, notwithstanding its great 



* Zool. GarJ. vi. Hi. 



