LEMURS 29 



when food is scarce and the ground is covered with snow. But 

 it is rare to find an animal which chooses the hottest part cf 

 the summer for its long yearly nap. Perhaps the reason is the 

 same in both cases: the mouse lemur finding it more difficult to 

 pick up a living when the ground is parched with heat, than in the 

 colder and wetter seasons of the year. 



During its long sleep this little animal, strange though it may 

 seem, lives upon its tail. Even while asleep it requires of course a 

 certain amount of food to keep it alive, and it obtains this supply 

 from its tail, which is thick and massive with fat when it goes to 

 sleep, and thin and limp when it awakes some months later. 



One of the strangest of the lemur-like animals is the Aye-aye. 

 In appearance he is a mixture of the fox, the monkey, the lemur, 

 and the squirrel, and his body is so curiously constructed that 

 naturalists have had great difficulty in making up their minds 

 in what group he should be placed. They have now decided, 

 owing to the nature of his teeth, that he is most closely related 

 to the lemurs. 



The most striking peculiarity in the aye-aye is the shape of his 

 second finger, which is extremely long and slender, resembling a 

 piece of bent wire, and is evidently intended to assist him in his 

 search for grubs and insects. 



A well-known naturalist several years ago described the manner 

 in which the aye-aye goes to work in using this remarkable claw. 

 He obtained an aye-aye, shut him up in a large cage, with a 

 number of thick branches from a tree attacked by a large and 

 destructive grub. At sunset the aye-aye awoke from his daily 

 nap, and began to examine his surroundings. When he came 

 to one of the worm-eaten branches he stopped and inspected it 

 carefully, and, bending forward his ears and applying his nose to 

 the bark, rapidly tapped the surface with his curious second 

 finger. At last he came to a part of the branch that evidently 

 gave out an interesting sound, for he began to tear it with his 

 strong teeth, stripped ofif the bark, cut into the wood, and exposed 

 the nest of a grub, which he daintily fished out with his slender 

 tapping finger, and ate with evident pleasure. 



The aye-aye is indeed a marvellous example of the way in 



