28 LEMURS, 
gives vent to a little sharp whistle, from which it has gained its name of 
Ouistiti. It is sufficiently active when in the enjoyment of good health, 
climbing and leaping about from bar to bar with an agile quickness that 
reminds the observer of a squirrel, 
MARMOSET.—( Yacchus vulgaris.) 
Its food is both animal and vegetable in character; the animal portion 
being chiefly composed of various insects, eggs, and, it may be, an occasional 
young bird, and the vegetable diet ranging through most of the edible fruits. 
A tame Marmoset has been known to pounce upon a living gold fish and to 
eat it. In consequence of this achievement, some young eels were given to 
the animal, and at first terrified it by their strange writhings, but in a short 
time they were mastered and eaten. 
The length of the full-grown Marmoset is from seven to eight inches, 
exclusive of the tail, which measures about a foot. 
LEMURS. 
THE form of the monkeys which are known by the name of LEMURS is of 
itself sufficient to show that we are rapidly approaching the more quadru- 
pedal mammaalia. 
The head of all the Lemurs is entirely unlike the usual monkey head, and 
even in the skull the distinction is as clearly marked as in the living being. 
Sharp, long, and pointed, the muzzle and jaws are singularly fox-like, while 
the general form of these animals, and the mode in which they walk, would 
lead a hasty observer to place them among the true quadrupeds. Yet, on a 
closer examination, the quadrumanous characteristics are seen so plainly, 
that the Lemurs can but be referred to their proper position among, or rather 
at the end of, the monkey tribe. 
The word Lemur signifies “a night-wandering ghost,” and has been 
applied to this group of animals on account of their nocturnal habits, ang 
