186 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
a diameter of about a couple of feet. Apparently the sole use 
of this nest is as a nursery, and in it at the proper season 
the female brings forth a solitary offspring—whether born 
naked or clothed with hair does not seem to be ascertained. 
The female alone builds the nest, which is placed securely 
in the fork of a tree. 
In addition to the use described above, the attenuated 
middle finger is employed to comb the hair and clean the 
eyes, mouth, and nose; the animal, when thus engaged, 
generally suspending itself head-downwards from a bough 
by its hind-feet ; at any rate, this is the case in captivity. 
As a rule, the food is not held in the paws, after the 
usual monkey and lemur fashion, although the act of 
drinking is performed in an ape-like manner, the fingers 
being first dipped in water and then sucked. 
Besides the boring larvae already alluded to, it is certain 
that the aye-aye will eat various other kinds of food, 
although native accounts differ to a considerable extent on 
this point. Some say, for instance, that it subsists largely 
on birds and their eggs, while others assert that honey is 
its favourite food. Probably there is some degree of truth 
in all these accounts, and that the creature is to a certain 
extent omnivorous. It will eat sugar-cane with considerable 
gusto, and in captivity has been known to take bananas, 
But that these latter are not its natural food would seem to 
be evident from the fact that they stick in and clo& its teeth. 
As regards its distribution, the aye-aye is a very local 
animal ; its chief habitat being the great forest clothing the 
eastern border of the great central plateau of the island. 
Here, however, it is apparently restricted to the district 
forming the confines of the provinces of Sihanaka and 
Betsimisaraka, which is situate about five-and-twenty miles 
inland in latitude 17° 22' S, I am, however, informed by 
