THE AYE-AYE. 33 
little creature a firmer hold of the boughs about which it is constantly leap- 
ing, the palms of the hands are furnished with several cushions. The backs 
of the hands are covered with soft downy fur, resembling the hair with which 
the tail is furnished. Excepting on the hands and tail, the fur is very thick 
and of a woolly character, but at the root of the tail, and at the wrists and 
ankles, it suddenly changes to the short downy covering. 
THE true position of that very rare animal the AYE-AYE seems very doubt- 
ful, some naturalists placing it in the position which it occupies in this work, 
and others, such as Van der Hoeven, considering it to form a link between 
the monkeys and the rodent animals, the incisor teeth bearing some resem- 
blance to those of the rodents. 
; 
bn 
Ahi 
Hh 
W 
Ke 
‘K\ \\ \ 
i 
AYE-AYE. —(Cheiromys Madagascariensis.) 
These curious teeth are extremely powerful, and are very decply set in the 
jawbones, their sockets extending nearly the entire depth of the bone. 
They are used just like the rodent teeth, the animal biting deeply into the 
trees, and so laying bare the burrows of various wood-boring grubs, 
The colour of the animal is a dull black on the upper portions of the body, 
the under parts, as well as the cheeks and throat, being of a light grey. The 
paws are nearly black. The fur of the body is thickly set, and is remarkable 
for an inner coating of downy hair of a golden tint, which sometimes shows 
itself through the outer coating. On the tail the hair is darker than on the 
body, greater in length, and in texture much coarser. The tail, which is jetty 
black, seems to be always trailed at length, and never to beset up over the 
D 
