1863.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE SPECIES OF LEMUROIDS. 129 



it would more and more interfere with the bearer's means of obtain- 

 ing a livelihood ; and hence, weakened by starvation, the bird was 

 finally unable to rise, and met its death in the manner stated. 



If, as I believe, the clay accumulated by degrees, it is obvious that 

 there was once a time when the incipient mass was no heavier a bur- 

 then than the bird was able to bear in flight. What the actual limit 

 was, is a question we have no means of determining ; at least I am 

 not aware of any experiments having been made tending to show 

 what weight a Partridge is capable of supporting on the wing. But 

 I trust I have said enough to justify me in bringing this before the 

 Society as a singular illustration of the manner in which birds may 

 occasionally aid in the dispersion of seeds. 



G. Revision of the Species of Lemuroid Animals, with 

 THE Description of some New Species. By Dr. J. E. 

 Gray, F.R.S., etc. 



(Plates XVn., XVIII., XIX.) 



Having to examine some recently acquired specimens of Lemuroid 

 animals from Western Africa, I was induced to re-examine the series 

 of specimens of the family in the British Museum, and determine 

 the different specimens of the genus which had been received within 

 the last few years, and only named as they were entered in the list 

 of accessions. 



There has been published lately two monographs of the family, 

 derived from the same collection, that in the Jardin des Plantes at 

 Paris— the one by Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire and MM. Florent 

 Prevost and Pucheran (' Catalogue Methodique des Mammiferes,' 

 Paris, 1851), the other by a young Swedish naturalist, viz. A. G. 

 Dahlbom ('Studia Zoologica,' Lund. 1856). And Dr. Peters, in his 

 work on the ' Zoology of Mozambique,' has examined and described 

 some specimens in the Berlin Museum. So that we may consider 

 that the specimens in the best Continental museums have been care- 

 fully examined. 



Every one must be struck with the number of genera into which 

 the smaller species of the family are divided ; while the larger spe- 

 cies are all included in a single genus, divided into sections, which 

 are more decided and more neatly characterized than several of the 

 genera above referred to. This must be sufficiently evident when 

 we find that the most striking and important — indeed I may say 

 the only characters that M. Isidore Geoffroy can find to distinguish 

 allied genera are as follows : — Hind legs, ears, and eyes very deve- 

 loped, Microcebus; hind legs, ears, and eyes extremely developed, 

 Galago : to which, to be sure, he adds, the first is from Madagascar, 

 and the second from continental Africa and the small islands adjacent 

 to that continent. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1863, No. IX, 



