84 SLOW LEMUR. 



Whenever water was offered, it contented itself 

 with smelling it, without drinking. It was pas- 

 sionately fond of eggs. It often made use of 

 its hands in eating, in the manner of a squirrel. 

 I concluded from its eating eggs, that it would 

 also eat birds; and accordingly having given it a 

 live sparrow, it immediately killed it with a bite, 

 and very greedily eat the whole. Curious to 

 know whether insects would also suit its taste, I 

 gave it a live cockchaffer, which it took in its 

 paw and devoured completely. I afterwards gave 

 it a chaffinch, which it also eat with a good appe- 

 tite, after which it slept the remainder of the day. 

 I have often seen him still awake at two hours 

 after midnight; but from half past six in the 

 morning he was always in a profound sleep, so 

 that his cage might be cleaned without disturbing 

 his repose. During the day, being awaked by 

 force in order to provoke him, he was angry, and 

 bit the stick, but with a very slow motion, and 

 with a reiterated cry of ai, ai, ai, lengthening out 

 the ai each time into a plaintive, languid, and 

 tremulous sound, in the same manner as is re- 

 ported of the Sloths of America. After having 

 been thus teized for a long time, and thoroughly 

 awakened, he crawled two or three times round 

 the cage, and immediately slept again." 



This slowness of motion and plaintive cry made 

 Mr. Vosmaer consider the animal as a species of 

 Sloth ; but it has no other affinity with the Sloths, 

 nor can it be placed in the same genus. It forms 

 a most curious contrast in this respect to that 



