THE LEMURS. 



8i 



Thus the so-called 

 Dwarf Lemur (yj//- 

 croccbus myoxiiiiis) 

 shows such an elon- 

 gation of the scaph- 

 oid and calcaneum as 

 to remind us of the 

 Galagos of Africa, 

 and to serve as the 

 type of a sub-family 

 known as the Macro- 

 tarsi. In the Weasel 

 Lemurs (Lepidile- 

 mur) the upper in- 

 cisors are shed very 

 early without leav- 

 ing any traces, and 

 the short canines 

 and blunt -tubercled 

 molars indicate, as 

 in the Hapalemurs, 

 a more purely vege- 

 table diet, which, in- 

 deed, seems to be 

 proved in the case of the latter genus at 



Fig. 25. — Rmg-tailed Lemur (/,«/«//• rarta). page 83, 



(Ring-tailed)^ Lemur 



[Lemur catta) and 

 Cat (Mouse) Lemur 

 ( Ch iroga Ictis) have 

 been applied to cer- 

 tain forms on ac- 

 count of a general 

 resemblance in ex- 

 ternal form to the 

 animals named. The 

 ears are ot medium 

 size and abundantly 

 covered with hair, 

 never naked. The 

 eyes are rather small 

 than large for noc- 

 turnal animals. The 

 nostrils are at the 

 end of the muzzle. 

 The whole face, as 



^ well as the backs of 

 1, 

 the hands and feet, 



are thinly covered 

 with hair, but else- 

 where the fur is thick, fine, woolly, and 



least, since only bamboo leaves have been mostly short. The two pairs of limbs, ex- 

 found in the stomach. 

 The greatly enlarged 

 csecal expansion of the 

 stomach and the long 

 caecum in all lemurs 

 point to the same 

 kind of nourishment. 

 Slight variations in 

 the structure of the 

 hands and feet, in 

 the number of the 

 teats, and so on, have 

 served as means for 

 distinguishing the 

 genera. 



All the lemurs have 

 a rounded skull with 

 more or less project- 

 ing muzzle, so that 

 the names of Fox 



Y\<r. 26.— The Dwarf Lemur {Mlcrocebus myoxiiiiis). page i 



cept in the Macrotarsi, 

 are almost equal in 

 length; the pollex 

 (thumb) is less devel- 

 oped than the hallux 

 (great toe). All the 

 digits, except the claw- 

 bearing second digit 

 of the hind -feet, are 

 covered with flat or 

 sometimes slightly 

 arched nails. The tail 

 is mostly longer than 

 the body, and bushy, 

 like that of a squirrel. 

 The colour of the 



1 ' The first name i.s a translation 



i I that used in German, the one 



m parentheses the name used by 



I'^ni^lisli writers. — IK. 



11 



