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 ' R^gne Animal,' 

 in the plate (pi. 2) containing those of anomalous quadrupeds ; and M. de Blainville, in 

 the subsequent account of these specimens in his ' Osteographie,' 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 ' R^gne 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, figured 

 by De Blainville in pi. 5 of his ' Osteographie 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 crassicaudatm, Wagn., of which Cuvier figures a stuffed specimen in 

 pL 1. fig. 1 of the same volume of the ' R^gne 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 



' " M. CuTier ait persiste, dans les deux editions de son ' Regne Animal,' a ranger 1' Aye-aye parinis les 

 Rongeuis, a cote des icureuils, en sebornant a dire qu'il fait le passage aux Makia."—De Blainville, op. eit. p. 27. 



' " Planche ii. figs. 1 , 2, 3, 1' Aye-aye {Cheiromys, C), qui> a des dents de Rongeurs, unit une tete fort semblable 

 a celle des quadrumanes, principalement pour ce qui regarde 1' arcade zygoniatique, I'orbite," &c. (Regne Animal, 

 ed. 1. torn. iv. 1817, p. 181; ed. 2. torn. iii. 1830, p. 429). 



' "M. Laurillard m'a remis, en outre, les quatre os principaux d\i metatarse, c'esta-dire, I'astragale, le 

 calcaneum, le scaphoide et le cuboide, qui avaient, sans doute, ete tires de la peau bourree de la collection 

 zoologique, sur la demande de M. Cuvier. Or, a eux seuls ils devaient suffire pour determiner la place de 

 l'\ye-aye a cotiS du Tarsier et des Galagos ; car le calcaneum et le scaphoide ofFrent la meme forme et le meme 

 allongement singulier qui a determine Daubenton a donner an premier de ces animaux le nora sous lequel il est 

 encore de'signe' ; ce que j'avais suppose autrefois d'apres le seul exaraen de I'individu monte. La figure que nous 

 en donnons dans la planche (v.) de notre Osteographie des Lemurs suflira pour mettre cette assertion hors de 

 doute ; aussi est-il veritablement etonnant que M. Cuvier, qui avait k sa disposition ce tarse," &c.— De Blain- 

 ville, "Mem. sur I'Aye-aye," p. 27. 



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