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LEMURS. 
or for the purpose of crossing from one plantation or coppice to another, they but 
rarely leave the trees. Their diet is extremely mixed, scarcely anything coming- 
amiss to them, as will be inferred when we mention that leaves, fruits, insects, 
reptiles, birds’ eggs, and birds themselves are eagerly consumed by most of these 
animals. 
By the natives of Madagascar the lemurs are looked upon with suspicious 
female black lemur with young. (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1885.) 
awe, and are consequently but seldom molested. This is doubtless due to their 
nocturnal habits and ghost-like movements; while the large eyes essential to these 
and all other nocturnal creatures have perhaps contributed to this feeling. In 
Ceylon and India, as we shall subsequently see, the large glaring eyes of one of the 
prettiest of the lemurs used to lead to the unfortunate creatures being put to a cruel 
death. None of the lemurs attain any very large size, and all of them, when 
unmolested, are perfectly harmless and inoffensive animals, except to the birds, 
reptiles, and insects upon which they prey. The nostrils of a lemur, which are 
always situated at the extremity of the muzzle, differ markedly in form from 
