IV. 



THE KINKAJOU'S NAME AND HIS LOOKS. 



To discover the name of my queer little pet, 

 and his place in the books of Natural History, I 

 found a hard task. Many volumes were studied, 

 the search being based on the story I had been 

 told, that he had come from Africa, and was 

 called a night monkey. 



In looks, habits, and manners he resembled 

 the Lemuridce or half-monkeys of that country. 

 Books and traveled naturalists agreed that he 

 must be a lemur oid, though no one could exactly 

 place him. But one day, in looking for some- 

 thing else, I stumbled upon a description that 

 suited him better than any other, and thus found 

 that he was a kinkajou of Central and South 

 America. It was plain, therefore, that somebody 

 through whose hands he had passed had not the 

 love of truth in his heart. 



I was glad to find that I was not the first who 

 had been puzzled by his resemblance to the 

 lemurs. Naturalists have been uncertain where 

 to place him, but at last have decided that he 

 belongs to the bears, and his proper name is 

 Cercoleptes caiidivolvulus, though the South 



