242 
NATURAL HISTORY, \ 
finger. The back or rib vertebrae are fourteen or more, and the loin-bones are never less than seven. 
There is a remarkable division of the blood-vessels of the arms, loins, and legs called the rete 
mirabile . The vessels split into minute tubes, like hairs in calibre, but of two sizes, and lie closely 
adherent to each other in long parallel lines (see page 245) ; this arrangement, also termed a 
plexus, or plexiform, being similar in kind to what is met with in the Sloth tribe of South America. 
The Slow Lemurs inhabit both Africa and Asia, but are not found in Madagascar, and their mode of 
life is strictly arboreal and nocturnal. 
The first African genus is Perodicticus . 
THE A NOW ANTI BO. {Slightly altered after Huxley.) 
VAN BOSNIAN'S POTTO * 
As far back as the year 1705, while on a voyage to the Guinea coast, the Dutch navigator, Van 
Bosnian, came across a new and strange little quadruped which, on his return, he figured and briefly 
described under the name of Potto. The colonists knew it as the Bush- dog, and that it was slothful 
and retiring, seldom making its appearance except in the night-time, and then to feed on the cassada 
and other vegetables. It is remarkable for its singular hand, which has, as it were, a deformed fore- 
finger, and for a seeming protrusion of the neck-bones. 
Like other tropical night-animals, the home or wild habits of the Potto have only been loosely 
studied. It is not restricted to the northern parts of Guinea, but is found on the Gold Coast and at the 
Gaboon River under the Equator. It shows a certain agility at night, clambering up the most smooth 
and polished branches with ease. When caught, and in captivity, one authority says, it sped along 
the cornices and angles within the house wherever there was the least elevation from the wall. 
Those specimens which have lived in the Regent’s Park Gardens from time to time have fed on 
# Perodicticus potto. 
