106 



MURINE LEMUR. 



Lemur Murirms. L. caudatus cinereus, Cauda ferruginea. Lin. 



Syst. Nat. Gmel. p. 44. 

 Long-tailed ash-coloured Lemur, with ferruginous tail. 

 Little Lemur. Br own Illustr. Zool.p. loS.pl. 44. 

 Lemur Murinus. Cimelia Physica. p. 2$. pi. 1 3. 

 Murine Maucauco. Pennant Quadr. J. /. 232. 

 Little Maucauco. Pennant Quadr. i.p. 233. 

 Rat de Madagascar. Buff, suppl. 3. p. 149. pi. 20. 



This species is extremely well figured in Brown's 

 Illustrations of Zoology, from a living specimen 

 which was kept some time in England. Its size 

 was somewhat less than the black rat; and its co- 

 lour is an elegant pale cinereous or grey on the up- 

 per parts, and white beneath : the eyes are encir- 

 cled by a zone of a deeper colour : the ears are 

 large, naked, rounded, and thin : the eyes very 

 large and full : the tail is hairy, of the length of the 

 body, and prehensile, or capable of coiling at plea- 

 sure round any object, as in some of the small mon- 

 kics : the toes are rounded at the ends, and have 

 also rounded nails, but those on the first toe on 

 each hind foot are long and sharp. This, as Mr. 

 Pennant observes, seems to be the same animal with 

 that figured in Buffon, under the title of Rat de 

 Madagascar; and which is supposed to live in the 

 palm-trees, and feed on fruits : it eats, holding its 

 food in its fore feet, like a squirrel : has a weak cry, 

 and when sleeping rolls itself up. This also is the 

 animal which is suspected to have given rise to 

 the doubtful species of Monkey, called by Linnaeus 



