1901.] LEMUll MON&OZ AND L. EUBEITBNTEB. 265 



the coloured figure of the male of Lemur riikriv enter in the Hist. 

 Nat. de Madagascar^. HaAdng known the Lemur rubriventer in life, 

 without ever having seen this " cobalt-blue " ring in the male, 1 

 had already arrived at the coDclusion that it was merely the out- 

 come of the artist's highly coloured imagination. The specimens 

 in the Gardens show that the region in question has in both seses 

 about the coloration of the lower figure in plate 169 of the quoted 

 work, viz. dark grey with a bluish tinge. 



The examination of one of the types of Geoffroy's Lemur jlavi- 

 venter in the Leydeu Museum showed that Schlegel was perfectly 

 justified in considering this form to be the female of Lemur rubri- 

 venter. Apart from the slight variation in the coloration, the two 

 agree absolutely in all other features, including the very character- 

 istic conformation of the cranium. 



The skull of a male Lemur nigerrmms presented by Mr. Stanley 

 FloAver - agrees in almost every particular with the one figured in 

 Grandidier's work '\ and is therefore very distinct from the skull 

 of L. rubriventer. 



. Lemur rubriventer has, in fact, very few of the characteristic 

 features of the other species of the genus, but on the other hand 

 some striking peculiarities of its own; and I perfectly remember how 

 much I was puzzled when I first met with tliis species in the forests 

 of Ivohimanitra. The head is roundish, the face being much less 

 produced and the hinder portion broader than in all the other 

 species. The ears are comparatively small, hairy and hidden, as it 

 were, in the fur, as already perfectly characterized by Schlegel *\ 



The skull is short and broad, and massive ; the facial cranium 

 remarkably short for a Lemur '. But the most peculiar feature in 

 the skull of this species is a pneumatic cavity, developed in the 

 palatal and which, with the increase in age of the aniuial, becomes 

 so much enlarged that it pervades the whole of the bottom of the 

 orbit, and, in the basis cranii, considerably narrows the posterior 

 openings of the naves (PI. XXII. fig. 7). In an advanced foetus 

 the pars perpendicular is of the palatal exhibits already, just above 

 the posterior margin of the bony palate, the opening of a small 

 recess, which extends in a supero-lateral direction ; as a conse- 

 quence, the palatal appears slightly infiated in the orbit. In the next 

 stage available (PI. XXII. fig. 6, a young individual), the opening 

 of the incipient sinus is oval-shaped, its long axis parallel to the 

 long axis of the cranium ; it is situated almost entirely behind the 

 bony palate, so that it is visible in the horizontal lower view of 



1 PI. 167. 



- Brit. Mas. Z. D. No. 0.8.6.21 ; from the Ghizeh Zool. Gardens. This 

 specimen bred with a 2 ^- macaco, and the young is stated to have been like 

 the mother. 



3 PI. 188. 



' " Oreilles passablenient petites, tbrtement velues dans toute leur etendue et 

 eomme eachees dans le pelage de la tete." (Monogr. Singes, p. 311.) 



' Grandidier's plate 191 {" Lemur Jiaviventcr") conveys a good general idea 

 of the skull of Lemur rubriventer. 



