DENTITION OF LEMURS 
legs to make their toilet conveniently. It is entirely nocturnal 
and arboreal in its habits, which have been most fully described 
by Baron*® and by Lydekker.* One of the most interesting 
facts is, that the female constructs in a tree a special and elegant 
globular nest as a nursery for the care of her single offspring. 
Nothing whatever is known of the ancestry of this remark- 
able little creature, but it is evidently a survivor of a very ancient 
type. 
The lemurs proper (family Lemuride) are characterized by 
thick woolly fur, a doglike muzzle, and the form of the teeth. 
In the center of the upper jaw there is always a toothless gap, 
or diastema, on each side of which the teeth are arranged ac- 
cording to the following formula: I. 3, C. 4, P. 3, M. 3, =36. 
This formula is the customary way of stating mammalian dentition, 
and it means that on each side of the jaw there are, of incisors (I.) two 
above and two below; of canines (C.) one above and one below; of pre- 
molars (P.) and molars (M.) three and three; —.that is, eighteen teeth in 
all on one side of the face, or thirty-six for the total dentition. 
The endrinas, however, have teeth: I. 3, C. ;4y, P.3,M.3,=32 
or 30 in number. In the upper jaw the incisors are small and 
perpendicular; but in the lower, where they are long and nar- 
row, they protrude horizontally in front. The forty-five species 
in the family are separable into four groups: (1) the endrinas, 
sifakas, avahis, and woolly lemurs; (2) the “true” or typical le- 
murs; (3) the chirogales; and (4) the pottos, aye-aye, and loris. 
The endrinas number five species, all of Madagascar, and 
the largest species, called “babakoto,” is one of the best-known 
animals on the eastern coast, where the traveler 
hears its ‘“‘doleful, doglike howls ” from morning 
until night — an unusual thing among these secretive animals. 
It has a head shaped like that of a miniature bear, the face 
naked, and, like its paws, brownish black; its dark upper parts 
often reddish; while the whiskers, forearms, rump, small tuft 
51 
Babakoto. 
