250 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
of the group with which it is classified. The Spectre Tarsier, which inhabits the Oriental Archipelago 
; and the Philippine Islands, has not been brought alive to England, but the late well-known natu- 
ralist, Mr. Cuming, gave the following description of its habits and peculiarities : — 
“ The Malrnag is a small animal living under the roots of trees, particularly the large bamboo of 
these islands. Its principal food is Lizards, which it prefers to all other. When extremely hungry I 
have known it to eat Shrimps and Cockroaches, and give a great preference to those which are alive. 
It is very cleanly in its habits * never touches any kind of food that has been partly consumed, and 
never drinks a second time from the same water. It seldom makes any kind of noise, and when it 
does emit sound, it is a sharp, shrill call, and only once. On approaching it in its cage it fixes its 
large full eyes upon the party for a length of time, never moving a muscle ; on drawing nearer or 
putting anything near it, it draws up the muscles of the face similar to a Monkey, and shows its 
beautiful, sharp, regular-set teeth. It laps water like a Cat, but very slowly, and eats much for so 
small an animal. It springs nearly two feet at a time. It sleeps much by day, is easily tamed, and 
becomes quite familiar, licking the hands and face, and creeping about your person, and is fond of 
being caressed. It has an aversion to the light, always retiring to the darkest place. It sits upon its 
posteriors when it feeds, holding its food by its fore-paws ; when not hungry it will ogle the food for a 
considerable time. A male and female are generally seen together ; the natives of these islands make 
sure of taking the second having secured the first. They are extremely scarce in the island of Bohol, 
and found only in the woods of Jagna and the island of Mindanado. It produces one at a 
time. I had the good fortune to procure a female without knowing her to be with young. One 
morning I was agreeably surprised to find she had brought forth. The young one appeared to be rather 
weak, but a perfect resemblance to its parent ; the eyes were open and covered with hair. It soon 
gathered strength, and was constantly sucking betwixt its parent’s legs, and so well covered by its 
mother that I seldom could see anything ot it but its tail. On the second day it began to creep about 
the cage with apparent strength, and even climb up to the top by the rods of which the cage was 
composed. Upon persons wishing to see the young one when covered over by the mother, we had to 
disturb her, upon which the dam would take the young one in its mouth, in the same manner as a Cat, 
and carry it about for some time. Several times I saw her, when not disturbed, trying to get out of 
the cage, with the young one in her mouth as before. It continued to live and increase in size for three 
weeks, when, unfortunately, some one trod upon the tail of the old one which was protruded through 
the cage, a circumstance which caused her death in a few days. The young one died a few hours after, 
and I put it in spirits.” 
GENUS CHEIROMYS. 
Another Madagascar Lemuroid remains to be noticed, and it ought to have been described with 
those of that great island ; but the creature is so unlike all the others, and is so manifestly inferior in 
its Lemuroid character, and peculiar in its construction and habits, that it is necessary to place it at 
the end of all. Its position in the scale of classification is at the end of the Lemuroida, for although it 
has many of their anatomical characters, it resembles the Bodents, or Gnawers, in others. It is called 
THE AYE-AYE * 
This is one of the most remarkable animals in the world, both on account of its peculiar Squirrel 
•shape and Lemur-like construction, as well as on account of its habits. The animal was first kept and de- 
scribed by the traveller Sonnerat, who obtained a male and female from tine west coast of Madagascar. 
He kept them on board ship and fed them on boiled lice for two months, when they died, and he used 
to remark that they used a finger of each hand to eat with, after the fashion of the Chinese, who use 
chopsticks. Having shown them to some of the natives of the east coast of the island, they were 
surprised, and denied that these curious-looking creatures belonged to tlieir part of the country; 
moreover, they ejaculated “ Aye-aye ” on seeing them, and thus gave the familiar name to the breed. 
It is now known that the so-called Aye-Aye chiefly inhabits the forests of bamboos, which are 
* Chciromys Madagascar iensis. 
