The Lemurs. MAMMALIA. The Lichanotid^. 43 
and, like all the lower Quadrumana, have a great liking 
for eggs and young birds, which they may seize with 
great ease during their nocturnal expeditions through 
the forest. The females produce only a single young 
one at a birth, and attend to this with the greatest 
tenderness. At first they carry their offspring about in 
their arms, the little creature aiding its mother’s efforts 
by clinging to her breast; but as the young lemur 
increases in size, it coils itself round her middle, and is 
thus carried about. 
In confinement the lemurs are lively and playful, and 
the elegance of their forms and gracefulness of their 
actions render them most ph'asing objects in our mena- 
geries, where, notwithstanding the tropical tenderness 
of their constitution, they have been known to live for 
many years, and even to breed. They exhibit less 
intelligence than the higher Quadrumana, but at the 
same time are destitute of the ferocity which often 
characterizes the latter as they increase in j'ears. In 
general the lemurs are very gentle and harmless, fond 
of licking the hands of their visitors, and testify their 
contentment by a curious purring noise. According to 
the observations of M. F. Cuvier upon the mongous, 
the claw of the first finger of the hinder hands is fre- 
quently introduced into the ear and kept there some 
time, for what purpose does not appear; the use of the 
projecting incisors of the lower jaw seems to be to act 
as a sort of comb in cleaning the fur, which the animals 
are very fond of doing, not unfrequently performing 
this good office for each other. 
THE EING-T AILED LEMUK {Lemur Catta), or 
Macaco, Plate 3, fig. 11, is one of the most elegant, 
and, at the same time, one of the best-known species of 
this family. It is about the size of a large cat, and its 
general colour is a delicate ashy grey ; the sides of the 
head and face, the throat, chest, and belly, are white ; 
and the long bushy tail is beautifully marked with 
broad rings of black and white. The form of the head 
in this species is perhaps more elegant than in any 
other lemur, and the vivacity and intelligence of its 
appearance are heightened by its white, pointed, and 
erect ears. In its manners also it is usually the most 
amiable and playful of all the lemurs, and appears to 
feel more affection than any of them for its master. 
THE MONGOUS {Lemur Mongoz), is another species 
which is frequently brought to Europe, and indeed 
appears to be one of the most abundant in its native 
country. It is a little larger than the ring-tailed lemur, 
and its body is entirely clothed with a thick coat of 
tawny woolly hair. The sides of the face are orna- 
mented with a pair of orange whiskers, the top of the 
head is black in the male, grey in the female, and the 
tip of the tail is also black. In speaking of the agility 
of this species M. F. Cuvier mentions that an individual 
in his possession was able to spring from the ground to 
the branch of a tree, at a height of at least ten feet. 
The only other species of the genus Lemur to which 
we shall refer is the Pied Lemur {L. Macaco), which 
is remarkable for the distribution of its colours, consist- 
ing in large irregular patches of black ai d white. The 
tail and hands are entirely black, as are also the face 
and muzzle ; a large black patch surrounds the shoulders 
and neck, and a still larger one occupies nearly the 
whole of the back, leaving only a comparatively narrow 
white band between it and the patch on the shoulders. 
This is the most usual arrangement of the black and 
white in the pied lemur; but it varies considerably, and 
specimens have been seen in which only the tail, the 
hands, and the muzzle were black. This species 
appears to be of a fiercer character than most of its 
congeners ; some French travellers declare it to be as 
ferocious and cruel as a tiger, and M. F. Cuvier records 
an instance of a pied lemur which had lived for some 
time on good terms with a mongous having turned 
upon his companion the night after a change had been 
made in their abode, and utterly destroyed him. 
Besides these true lemurs the forests of Madagascar 
nourish several other species belonging to this family, 
which have been regarded as belonging to distinct 
genera. Most of them belong to the genus Cheiro- 
galeus, and the most important characters by which 
they are distinguished from the rest of the lemurs 
consist in the greater roundness of the head, the com- 
parative shortness of the muzzle, and the larger size of 
the eyes. The latter character w'ould indicate a more 
decidedly nocturnal activity than prevails even among 
the lemurs. 
THE CHEIEOGALEUS MILII, one of the few species 
of this group of the habits of which we know anything, 
and at the same time one of the largest of them, measures 
about fourteen Inches in length, exclusive of the tail, 
which is rather longer than the body; it is covered with 
a thick silky fur of a tawny-grey colour on all the upper 
parts of the body, and white beneath. Its legs are very 
much shorter than in the ordinary lemurs. A specimen 
in tlie menagerie of Paris passed the wdiole day sleeping 
in a nest which it made for itself with hay, and the 
whole night in active movement. Its agility was so 
great that it could spring to a height of six or eight 
feet. It fed upon fruits, bread, and biscuits. The 
Cheirogaleus Murinus, described long since by Brow n 
as the Little Macauco, is the smallest of the Lemuridse, 
its body measuring only about six inches in length ; it 
was described by Buffbn in his manuscripts under the 
name of the Madagascar rat. 
Family V.— LICHANOTID^. 
The preceding are not, however, the only quadru- 
manous inhabitants of Madagascar. The forests of 
that remarkable and still imperfectly-explored island, 
nourish another family of these animals, regarded by 
some w’l'iters as standing in the same relation to the 
lemurs as the anthropoid apes to the ordinary monkeys. 
These are the Indris, which are distinguished i'rom the 
preceding by the presence of only thirty teeth. The 
anterior teeth in the lower jaw are, however, placed 
almost horizontally as in the lemurs. 
THE INDKI {Indris Brevicaudatus), Plate 3, fig. 
12, is exceedingly remarkable in its form, and also 
deserves notice from its being the largest known species 
of the entire group of the Prosimiae or lemurine Quadru- 
mana. When in an erect position the indri measures 
upwards of three feet in height. Its tail is exceedingly 
short, indeed almost rudimentary, and its hind legs 
very long — circumstances w'hich render it the most 
