300 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
for two-thirds of its length, but terminating in a black 
extremity. 
In a subsequent paper, published in the Annales du 
Museum, M. Geoffroy described as a distinct species, 
under the name of the Maki d'Anjouan, an animal 
distinguished from the last by having its forehead and 
the sides of its face of an iron-gray approaching to 
black, and its general colour somewhat lighter. But a 
male of the former and a female of the latter, confined 
in the Paris Menagerie, having produced young, M. F. 
Cuvier deduces from this fact a conclusive proof of their 
identity of origin, and asserts that these differences in 
colour are dependent upon sex alone. In contradiction 
to this opinion Mr. MacLeay some time since exhibited 
to the Linnean Society an animal regarded as a female, 
but having all the external characters supposed by the 
French zoologist to be peculiar to the male. There is, 
however, a possibility that some error may have occurred 
in the determination of the sex, for we have ourselves 
witnessed such a mistake ; but be this as it may, the 
difficulty of discriminating between several of the closely 
approximating species of this group is by no means 
lessened by these observations. If the character de- 
rived from colour alone be, as the remark of M. F. Cuvier 
would lead us to suppose, variable and of uncertain 
value, we must abandon that which has hitherto been 
regarded as almost our only guide : and if on the other 
hand Mr. MacLeay's opinion be confirmed by future 
investigation, we shall be left in nearly the same state 
of indecision with respect to the Lemurs, as we find 
ourselves with regard to those groups, of domestic 
animals more especially, in which neighbouring species 
are known to produce together a mixed and interme- 
diate breed, and in which the distinction of species has 
consequently become a hopeless task. 
