THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
wooden ball which he rolled about and played with for a considerable time, 
carrying it in one hand while he hopped and skipped about in high 
glee. He eats fruits, sweetmeats, bread, and any kind of animal substance, 
killing everything he can pounce upon and overpower.” 
The mouse lemurs, dwarf lemurs, and fat-tailed lemurs are 
groups of many diminutive specics closely allied to the galagos, 
but confined to Madagascar. They have been particularly 
described by Forsyth- Major,” Grandidier,* and other students 
of the curious zodlogy of that great and ancient island. One 
very peculiar thing about them is their habit of going into a 
dormant state during the hot and dry seasons, curled up in 
their nests just as a northern animal does in its hibernation. 
They go in very fat, subsist by absorption of this stored tissue, 
and when the rainy season awakens the tropical world, they 
come out thin and weak to enjoy renewed life. The act and 
its cause are thus the same as the winter sleep of northern 
animals. 
Lastly, something must be said about the ‘“‘slow” lemurs 
(Lorisine), of which two species, the angwantibo and potto, 
Pottos and arc West African, and two, the slender and the slow 
Loris: loris, are East Indian. Both are small (eight to 
fifteen inches long), have soft woolly fur variously colored, a 
triangular face with very large and staring eyes close together 
almost no tail, and strangely misshapen hands and fect. They 
are nocturnal and, in strong contrast with most of their race, are 
perhaps the most sluggish of all mammals — the very embodi- 
ment of seeming laziness. They live in trees, climbing about 
with extreme caution and deliberation, in search of insects, 
lcaves, fruits, birds’ eggs, and similar food; but old Bosman 
evidently exaggerated when he wrote in 1704 of the potto of 
the Gold Coast: — 
“Some Writers affirm that when this Creature has climbed upon a 
Tree, he doth not leave it until he hath eaten up not only the Fruit, but 
the leaves intirely; and then descends fat and in very good case in order to 
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