"36 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE AYE-AYE. 



the figure of the skull of the Wombat, with a like rodent pattern of teeth, in the same 

 plate with that of the Aye-aye, where they are associated together as " Mammif^res 

 anoniaux." In my ' Odontography,' I cite other instances of glirine dentition in 

 mammals of non-rodent orders ; where, treating of the teeth of Chiromys, in chap, ix., 

 Quadrumana, I remark, — " In this genusofLemurine animals, as in Desmodus amongst 

 the Bats, and Sorex amongst the Insectivores, the dentition is modified in analogical 

 conformity with the rodent type" (4to, 1842, p. 435). In my " Classification of the 

 Mammalia" (' Proceedings of the Linnean Society,' April 1857), I state, — "The flying 

 Lemurs (Galeopitheci), the rodent Lemurs {Chiromys), the slow Lemurs {Loris, Otolicnus), 

 forbid any generalization as to teeth or nails in the Quadrumana " (p. 35). 



One need merely allude to the idea of the affinities of the Aye-aye to the Opos- 

 sums, emitted by Geoff"roy St.-Hilaire in the early notice in which he proposed first 

 the generic name of Daubentonia^ : the idea, however, was adopted by Lacepdde in the 

 constitution of his Order " Pedimanes " in the ' Classification des Mammif^res,' pub- 

 lished in 1798. 



lUiger, in rectifying the heterogeneous character of Lacep^de's " Pedimanes," places 

 the Aye-aye in his Family " Leptodactyli," where it is associated with the Tarsiers 

 and Galagos'^. 



MM. Fischer de Waldheim^, Oken"*, and Waterhouse'' adopted this view, which is also 

 supported argumentatively by M. F. Cuvier in the ' Supple'ment ' of the third volume 

 of the ' Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,' 1816. 



Notwithstanding, however, these testimonies, and the remarks, depreciating Baron 

 Cuvier's share in the elucidation of the nature of the Aye-aye, published by De Blainville, 

 unbiassed zoologists of note and experience have testified their sense of the need of further 

 knowledge of the organization of the Chiromys by the place assigned to it in their justly 

 esteemed works. Prof Milne-Edwards, for example, in his useful ' Elemens de Zoologie,' 

 retains the Chiromys in the Ordre " Rongeurs," and the " Tribu des Sciuriens," with the 

 admission that " it belongs almost as much to the Quadrumana as to the Rodentia'. " Pro- 

 fessor Van der Hoeven, also, whose careful researches into the anatomy of certain Lemu- 

 nrf« justly add weight to his estimate of the signification of the little that was then known 

 of the organization of Chiromys, nevertheless, in both editions of his richly stored 

 ' Handbuch der Zoologie,' retains the Aye-aye among the Rodents, remarking that it 



' 'Decade Philosophique,' no. 28, 1796. This term, having been appropriated by botanists for a genus of 

 Leguminoste, has been allowed to lapse by the general consent of zoologists, including Geofiroy himself, who, 

 with De Blainville and all original investigators of the animal, have communicated their observations on it as 

 the Chiromys of Cuvieb (Lemons d'Anat. Comp. vol. i., 1800). 



' ' Prodromus Systematis Manimalium et ."Vvium,' 8vo, 1811. 



' 'Tableaux de Zoographie,' 1813. 



* ' Handbuch der Naturgeschichte, &c., Zoologie,' 8vo, 1816. 



' "Observations on the Classification of the Mammalia," Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xii. p. -108 (note). 



' "Mais qui tiennent presque autant des Quadrumanes que des Rongeurs" (p. 348). 



