86 SLOW LEMUR. 
ter of the slow-paced Lemur^\ The illustrious 
French naturalist^ whom^ even when we criticise 
a few parts of his noble work^ we cannot but 
name with admiration^ observes of the Loris.^ that^ 
from the proportion of its body and limbs, one would 
not suppose it slozv iji zvalking or leaping, and inti- 
mates an opinion, that Seba gave this animal the 
epithet of slowmoving, from some fancied likeness to 
the Sloth of America : but though its body be re- 
markably long in proportion to the breadth of it^ 
5# and the hinder legs^ or more properly arms, much 
longer than those before, yet the Loris, in fact^ 
walks or climbs very slowly^ and is, probably, un- 
able to leap. Neither its genus nor species, we 
find, are new : yet, as its temper and instincts are 
imdescribed, and as the Natural History of M. 
Buffon, or the System of Nature by Linneeus, can- 
not always be readily procured, I have set down 
a few remarks on the form, the manners y the 
name, and the country of my little favourite, who 
engaged my affection while he lived, and whose 
memory I wish to perpetuate. 
I. This male animal had four hands, each five- 
fingered ; palms naked ; nails round, except those 
of the indices behind, which were long, curved, 
pointed; hair very thick, especially on the 
haunches, extremely soft, mostly dark-grey, varied 
with brown and a tinge of russet ; darker on the 
A most convincing proof of the real merit and superiority ot 
the Linnaean mode of description} so much and so often condemned 
by the Count de Buffon. 
