44 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE AYE-AYE. 



the tragus and antitragus. These large ears appear, by their muscles and contracted 

 attachment, to have much and varied movement : at rest they usually stand out hori- 

 zontally, adding greatly to the breadth of the head ; but their conch can be directed 

 wherever the sound is to be caught that attracts the animal's attention. 



The neck is short and thick. The shoulder-prominence is about the ear's breadth 

 behind the ear. The elbow, with the lower half of the humerus, stands freely from the 

 chest. The forearm is robust, subcompressed, slightly tapering to the wrist ; it cannot 

 be brought in extension to a line with the humerus. The hand turns freely in the prone 

 or supine position, the former being the habitual one. The hair is continued upon the 

 back part of the wrist, and sparingly, by short hairs, upon the same side of the fingers ; 

 these hairs are so few, fine, and short, as to be scarcely discernible on the attenuated 

 middle digit, the skin of which is darkened by pigmentum. The naked palm, continued 

 back upon the ' os pisiforme,' presents a protuberance there, matched by one on the 

 radial side ; there is also one at the base of the thumb, and smaller ones at the base of 

 tlie index, annulus, and fifth digits. The thumb stands out at an acute angle with the 

 index, slightly enlarging to its tumid extremity, beyond which the compressed, obtuse 

 claw hardly projects : it is an opposable member, and makes a prehensile hand, but in 

 a less perfect degree than in the Catarrhine Quadrumana. The second, fourth, and fifth 

 digits present a conformable and ordinary thickness, have a cushion on the palmar side 

 of their penultimate joint, and a more tumid one upon their last phalanx, beyond which 

 the obtuse claw, narrower and longer than that of the thumb, freely projects. The fifth 

 finger is rather longer than the second ; the fourth is almost twice as long as the second. 

 But the most singular feature of the hand is the attenuated middle finger, which seems 

 as if stricken and withered by palsy : it is rather shorter than the fourth, but is less 

 than half its thickness. The cleft between the second and third fingers is deeper than 

 that between the third and fourth. The base of the third is slightly tumid : its first 

 phalanx is slender and longer than that of the corresponding phalanx of the fourth 

 finger ; but the second and third phalanges are shorter. The animal can freely divaricate 

 and approximate the digits for a variety of applications of the long-fingered hand 

 (PI. XVIII.). 



The hind limb is longer than the fore limb, and rather stronger. A great proportion 

 of the thigh is free. The knee consequently projects much below the abdomen. The foot 

 is comparatively short ; the heel low, and naked below, with the rest of-thesole, which 

 is black, save on the prominences. The sole gains breadth to the base of the hind thumb, 

 or ' hallux,' which stands out at a rather more open angle with the other digits than 

 in the hand. The hallux is longer and thicker than the pollex, especially at its last 

 joint, which is backed by a true nail, broader than long, and not reaching to the end 

 of the terminal expansion. The four otlier toes are nearly of equal length and thick- 

 ness, the second being the shortest by a little, the fifth next in length. Each is armed 

 with a slightly curved, rather thick, subacute claw. The hair on both fore and hind 



