SIFAKAS. 
207 
Diademed Sifaka., 
described, is said to be a truly ludicrous sight. Not only are the hands of the 
sifakas of no use to their owners in walking, but they are almost equally useless 
as organs of prehension; and when a sifaka has occasion to pick up a fruit from 
the ground, he will usually stoop down and seize it in his mouth. When conveyed 
to the hand, such an object is grasped between the bent fingers and the palm, 
and not between the fingers and thumb. As purely grasping organs, adapted to 
afford a firm hold to the branches of trees, both the hands and feet of these lemurs 
are, however, perfect. 
In disposition the sifakas are described as being gentle, and they but seldom 
attempt to bite, while if they do so the wound they inflict is not serious. At 
certain seasons, however, the males are wont to engage in contests among them¬ 
selves, the results of which are frequently visible in their torn and tattered ears. 
Unlike many other lemurs, they are, as a rule, silent; but when frightened or 
angry they give vent to a low cry somewhat resembling the clucking of a fowl. In 
a word, so far as character goes, these animals may be described as being but little 
active, but little restless, and but little intelligent. 
The diademed sifaka (P. diadema), known to the natives of 
Madagascar as the simpona, is the largest of the three species, and 
at the same time the one which was first brought to the notice of science, having 
been described by E. T. Bennett in the year 1832. It takes its name from the band 
of white hairs running across the forehead, which, with the grey fringe of hair on 
the cheeks and chin, surrounds the black face, and thus gives to the animal a 
peculiar and striking physiognomy. The crown and back of the head, together 
with the outer surface of the ears and the nape of the neck, are a dark brown 
colour, and the same tint extends over the shoulders, so as to give somewhat the 
appearance of a mantle, and ends in a point on the back; this point in some 
individuals being only just below the neck, while in others it reaches as far back as 
the loins. Occasionally this dark mantle-like area, instead of being dark brown, is 
of a grey tint. The loins and flanks are generally grey, varying considerably in 
different individuals; the grey passing gradually into the brown of the back and 
the orange round the tail, and extending 011 to the upper parts of the arms, or even 
enveloping the whole of the upper arm. The fore-arms, together with the region 
round the tail and the legs, are generally of a bright orange yellow, although 
occasionally yellowish-white with some intermixed black hairs. The hands are 
mainly black, but the feet have a good deal of yellow in them; the basal half of 
the tail is yellowish, while the rest of it is grey. 
Such are the colours of the typical form of this species. In the moist regions 
of the south of Madagascar there is, however, a nearly or quite white race of this 
lemur, while in the dry regions of the north there is a black race; in each case 
intermediate forms occurring which connect these varieties with the ordinary 
type. 
The diademed sifaka inhabits the narrow strip of forest-land extending along 
the whole length of the eastern coast of Madagascar, and bordering the chain of 
granite and slaty mountains which dips down towards the sea on the east, and is 
the cause of almost daily rain. It is where this chain almost dies out at the 
northern end of the island that the black race occurs. 
