Apes, Monkeys, and Lemurs 



27 



and to retain what it has learnt, seein ahnost entirely wanting. Egoism, which is a sign of 

 human dementia, is a very leading characteristic of all monkeys. There is no doubt that 

 the baboons might be trained to be useful animals if they always served one master. Le 

 Vaillant and many other tra\'ellers have noted this. But tliey are too clever, and at tlie 

 bottom too ill-tempered ever to be trustworthy, even regarded as "watches," or to help in 

 minor manual labour. Baboons would make an excellent substitute for dogs as used in 

 Belgium for light draught; but no one could ever rely on their behaving themselves when 

 their master's eye was elsewhere. 



Taken as a family, the monkeys are a feeble and by no means likeable race. They 

 are " undeveloped " as a class, full of promise, but with no performance. 



THE LEMURS. 



The South American monkeys, with their 

 forms and fur, are followed by a beautiful 

 group of creatures, called the Lemurs, with 

 Borises, INIaholis, and Pottos. Their resem- 

 mainly in their hands and feet. These are 

 developed hands, witli proper thumbs, 

 foot nearly always terminates in a lonr, 

 naturalist, who kept them as pets 

 themselves with. Some of them 

 a sensitive disk, full of extra 

 " Unlike the lively squirrel 

 hiding-places till the tropical 

 when they seek their 

 but by ascending to the 

 and again, at the first ap- 

 the light in the recesses 

 The EiNG-TAiLED Lemcr 

 most of the race are 

 the light seems 

 they turn over 

 same inarticu- 

 But at night 

 they fly from 

 so that the 

 whether they 

 quiet ghosts 



■>~ squirrel-like 



and interesting 



tlieir cousins the 



Ijltuice to monkeys is 



real and very highly 



The second toe on the hind 



sharp claw. " Elia," the Indian 



noticed that they used this to scratch 



have the finger-tips expanded into 



nerves. Lemur means " tjliost." 



and monkeys, they do not leave their 



darkness has fallen on the forest, 



food, not by descending to the ground, 



upper surface of the ocean of trees, 



proach of dawn, seek refuge from 



of some dark and hollow trunk. 



is as lively by day as night ; but 



entirely creatures of darkness that 



stupefy them. When wakened, 



like sleeping children, with the 



late cries and deep, uneasy sighs. 



most are astonishingly active ; 



tree to tree, heard, but invisiljle ; 



natives of ^ladagascar doulit 



are not true lemures, the un- 



of their departed dead. 



Though the lemurs are here treated apart from the other animals of JMadagascar, it will 

 be obvious that they are a curious and abnormal tribe. This is true of most of the animals 

 of that great island, whicli has a fauna differing both from that of the adjacent coast of 

 Africa and from that of India or Australia. In the P'ossa, a large representative of the 

 Civets, it i^ossesses a sj^ecies absolutely ruilike any other. The Aye-aye is also an abnormal 

 creature. A^^or must it be forgotten tliat JMadagascar was until recently the home of some of 

 the gigantic ground-living birds. But, after all, none of its inhabitants are more remarkable 

 than its hosts of lemurs, some of which are to be met with in almost every coppice in the 

 island. There are also many extinct kinds. 



Exquisite fur, soft and beautifully tinted, eyes of extraordinary size and colour (for the 

 pupil shuts up to a mere black line by day, and the rest of the eye shows like a polished 

 stone of rich brown or yellow or marble-grey), are the marks of most of the lenmrs. 

 But there are other lemur-like creatures, or " lemuroids," which, though endowed with the 



[Berlin 



Photo by Ottoraar Aascliiitzl 



PIG-TAILED MONKEY CATCHING A FLY. 



Most of the smaller monkeys, as well as the baboons, are fond of eating 

 insects. Beetles, white ants, and tlies are eagerly sought and devoured. 



