BATS. 
23 
bushy tail, and long compressed claws on all the fingers and 
toes, with the exception o£ the great toe, which is opposable 
and furnished with a fiat nail. The middle finger of the fore- 
foot is unusually thin, and it is said that with this finger the 
Aye-aye pulls out of their holes the wood-boring caterpillars 
Avhich form part of its diet. It also uses its powerful incisors 
or cutting-teeth, which are shaped like those of a Rodent, to 
gnaw through the stems of sugar-canes and other plants, in 
order to obtain their succulent juice. 
The second family, or NycticeUda’^ includes the African [Case 
Galagos, or Galagince^ distinguished by the unusual elongation ^ 
of their tarsal bones. The species of Galago ( 205 - 208 ) are 
found in Africa, from Senegambia to Cape Colony. It also 
comprises the subfamily Lorisina% which contains several rare 
and curious forms, such as the Pottos, Perodicticus ( 224 - 226 ), of 
E(|uatorial x^frica and the Slow Lemurs, Pfycticehus ( 221 - 223 ) 
and Loris ( 227 , 228 ), of India and Ceylon. Specimens of all 
are exhibited in case 9 A. 
The third family of Lemuroidea, the Tarsiida\ contains a [Case 
single genus only. The Tarsiers, Tarsius spectrum ( 220 ) and 
T. fuscomauus, are extraordinary little animals about the size of 
a small rat, with 34 teeth, A^ery long feet, long tufted tails, and 
extremely large eyes; they are natiA^es of the islands of the 
Ea s t-In di an Archipel ago . 
Order II. CHIROPTERA. 
(Upper Gallery, Cases 13 A, B, and C, and 14.) 
The Bats, or Chiroptera, form one of the most sharply defined 
of all the orders of Mammalia, having the fore-limbs modified 
into wings. The structure of a BaPs AA’ing is A^ery simple : it 
consists of a framework formed by the bones of the arm and 
the enormously elongated fingers, between which the flying 
membrane (a continuation of the skin of the body) is expanded, 
being attached behind to the front of the hind-leg. In most 
species there is also an additional membrane spread between the 
hind-legs, in Avhich the tail is included. The thumb alone is free, 
