GALAGO PRANKS 
even barefooted men can walk, its long, smooth, leathery 
palms, channeled with suckerlike grooves, enabling it to go 
safely. The ruffed lemur of northeastern Madagascar is the 
largest of this race, in some of whose species the males are black 
while their mates are red. The hattocks, gentle lemurs, and 
sportive lemurs are allied genera. 
Next come the galagos and their relatives, widely distributed 
in central Africa, but unknown in Madagascar. They are small, 
have a rather short muzzle, large, membranous, 
folding ears, small eyes set close together, fingers 
and toes very long and slender, thick, soft grayish fur, and a 
bushy tail. The night is their hunting time, for they sleep by 
day in holes in trees or in leaf nests, differing in model with the 
species. Every one comments on their power of folding or 
crumpling their batlike ears. Sir John Kirk says of the great 
galago, or ‘‘palm-rat”’ of the Mozambique coast, that the rapidity 
and length of its leaps are extraordinary, and that it adheres 
where it alights ‘“‘as if it were a lump of wet clay.” An examina- 
tion of the pads beneath the balls of its toes would have shown 
Sir John why. It has a great fondness for palm wine, and 
whenever it can get at an open jar of it will get ingloriously 
tipsy; and many are arrested and condemned to jail in some 
dealer’s cage following such a spree. As pets, however, they 
are entertaining only after dark, hiding during daylight in 
their sleeping boxes. Mr. Bartlett * turned a galago loose in 
his room one evening, and learned something. 
Galagos. 
“Judge my utter astonishment to see him on the floor, jumping about 
upright like a kangaroo, only with much greater speed and intelligence. 
The little one sprung from the ground on to the legs of tables, arms of 
chairs, and, indeed, on to any piece of furniture in the room; in fact, he 
was more like a sprite than the best pantomimist I ever saw. What sur- 
prised me most was his entire want of fear of dogs and cats. These he 
boldly met and jumped on at once, and in the most playful manner hugged 
and tumbled about with them, rolling over and over, hanging on their tails, 
licking them on the head and face.... He was delighted with a little 
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