PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE AYE-AYE. 39 



in the event of there being any misgiving as to effecting a safe transmission of the 

 living Aye-aye to England, it might be more advantageous to science if the animal were 

 killed by chloroform, its arterial system injected, the cranial cavity exposed, the abdo- 

 minal cavity and alimentary canal injected with alcohol, and the whole animal then 

 immersed in a keg of colourless spirit. 



Before my reply reached Dr. Sandwith, the Aye-aye had escaped. It was, however, 

 recaptured on a neighbouring sugar-plantation in the Mauritius. Accordingly, on the 

 receipt of the above instructions, Dr. Sandwith at once proceeded to fulfil them ; and 

 the result was the reception, at the British Museum, of our now unique example of the 

 Chiromys madagascariensis, in the excellent state of preservation which has admitted of 

 the following description being taken from it. 



Before, however, entering upon this, I may remark that other testimony than my 

 correspondent's had been given of the accuracy of Sonnerat's original statement of the 

 office of the slender middle digit of the fore paw. M. Li^nard, of the island of 

 Mauritius, communicated, in 1855, to the French Academy of Sciences' sonae of his 

 observations on a young male Aye-aye, which was brought from Madagascar, and lived 

 some weeks in captivity. When a mango-fruit was offered, the Aye-aye first made a 

 hole in the rind with his strong fore teeth, inserted therein his slender middle digit, and 

 then, lowering his mouth to the hole, put into it the pulp which the finger had scooped out 

 of the fruit. When one hand was tired, he used the other, and often changed them. 

 On presenting him with a piece of sugar-cane, he held it by both hands, and, tearing it 

 open with his teeth, sucked out the juice. 



A third observer, M. A. Vinson, affirms, in reference to an Aye-aye brought from 

 Madagascar to the He de la Reunion in 1855, where it lived about two months in 

 captivity, that it selected the larvae it liked best by the sense of smell ; and that, when 

 "cafe au lait" or " eau sucree" was offered, it drank by passing its long and slender 

 digit from the vessel to its mouth with incredible rapidity^ 



§ 2. External Characters. 

 The male Aye-aye, transmitted to me in spirits by the Hon. Dr. Sandwith, is repre- 

 sented of one-half the natural size in Pis. XV., XVI. and XVII., and a profile of the 



' Comptes Rendus, Septembre 3"% 1855. 



' " II ne voulait pas des larves de tous les arbres indistinctement ; il les reconnaissait en les flairant. II e'tait 

 tres-friand de cafe au lait, d'eau sucree, qu'il buvait a I'aide de ce long doigt qu'il passait et repassait incessam- 

 ment du vase a la bonche avec une incroyable agilite" (Comptes Rendus de I'Acad. des Sciences, Oct. 185.5, 

 torn. xli. p. 640). [In the female Aye-aye, now living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society (August 1862), 

 Mr. Bartlett informs me that, " in feeding, the fourth, which is the longest and largest finger, is thrust forward 

 into the food, while the slender middle finger is raised above the others, and the first and second fingers are 

 lowered : in this position the hand is drawn rapidly backward and forward, the side of the fourth finger passing 

 between the tips of the animal's mouth as the head is somewhat turned sideways ; and in this manner the food 

 is deposited in the mouth."] 



