.326 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



little one ever dared to detach itself from its mother, it 

 would return at the slightest noise to conceal itself in her 

 fur. 



We may observe that the circumstance of this female 

 bringing forth, and suckling her young one, exactly as if 

 she enjoyed perfect liberty, is of very rare occurrence. 

 Wild animals, except when a state of captivity has from 

 long habit become to them almost a second nature, rarely 

 couple, and still more rarely prove productive. From seve- 

 ral important phenomena, we may consider that nature 

 does more for the continuance of species than the preserva- 

 tion of individuals ; but it is equally evident that a state of 

 liberty is essential to this continuation. In the case before 

 us the animals had been accustomed to confinement from 

 their earliest infancy. But, in general, slavery utterly 

 effaces or perverts the natural instincts of all the wilder 

 tribes. 



When we consider, in an elevated point of view, the 

 entire class of the Mammalia, and attempt to recognize 

 the position which each species occupies on the surface of 

 the globe, we contemplate a picture well calculated to ex- 

 cite a lively desire of knowledge, and to awaken that en- 

 thusiasm of research resulting from the view of striking 

 phenomena, whose causes and connexion are as yet unveiled. 



Few animals should excite a sentiment of this kind more 

 forcibly than the Lemurs. They are as imperfectly known 

 as the almost single and singular country which they inhabit, 

 the Island of Madagascar. Their relations also with the other 

 Mammalia, are too remote, to render any conclusion from 

 the nature of one to that of the other, satisfactory, or even 

 probable. 



Accordingly, all that can now be said of the Lemurs, 

 should be considered as nothing more than notes, which 

 united with successive observations may furnish the means 

 of tracing at some future period the natural history of these 

 extraordinary Quadrumana ; and if proper names are given 



