BASHFUL BILLY. 113 



BASHFUL BILLY, 



HIS WAYS AND HABITS. 



Bashful Billy is a slow loris, a strange, awkward- 

 looking little creature, and certainly slow enough to 

 deserve the name. He was taken from his nest in a 

 hollow tree in Java when he was very young, and has 

 been brought up as a pet by the lady to whom he 

 belongs. He might be taken for a monkey but for 

 his soft, slow ways and the unmeaning stare of his 

 great, yellow, owl-like eyes. When he sleeps — which, 

 it must be confessed, he does most of the time — it 

 does not seem to make the least difference to him 

 whether he hangs head downward, like a bat, from the 

 top of his cage, or clings to its side with all four of 

 his paws, or doubles down until the top of his head 

 rests on the cage floor, or curls up like pussy, pro- 

 vided that his nap is not disturbed. If, however, he 

 is awakened he gets quite out of temper, and will 

 show any one who doubts it that he has very sharp 

 teeth, though in truth he is very good natured at all 

 other times. 



He has to be bathed every week in warm water, 

 and when he is taken out and dried he licks himself 

 all over like a cat. He seems to dread dirt, either in 

 his cage or upon his person, as much as the most 

 careful housewife. He is very fond of fruit, espe- 

 cially bananas, but will not touch peaches, perhaps 



