A VAHI. 
209 
sharply separated from one another that it is sufficient to cross a river—it may be 
of no great width—in order to find that, while on one bank all the sifakas belong 
to one race, on the opposite bank they will be of another race, if not of a distinct 
species. No satisfactory explanation of these peculiar features in topographical 
distribution has, however, suggested itself to the authors quoted. 
The Avahi Lemur. 
Genus Avahis. 
The third and last genus of the present group of lemurs is represented only by 
the avahi or woolly lemur {Avahis laniger ); a species discovered at the same time 
as the indri in the year 1870 by the French traveller Sonnerat. The avahi, although 
furnished with a long tail like the sifakas, is readily distinguished by the still shorter 
muzzle, and also by the ears being completely concealed by the fur, which is of a 
woolly instead of a silky nature. Although these differences are amply sufficient 
to distinguish the avahi from the sifakas when they are seen together, it is not on 
these alone that the zoologist relies when referring them to distinct genera. There 
are, indeed, well-marked differences in their teeth; but it will be sufficient for our 
present purpose to merely record the existence of these points of distinction. The 
avahi differs, moreover, from all the other members of the group to which it belongs 
in being of nocturnal instead of diurnal habits. 
The avahi is the smallest member of all this group of lemurs, its dimensions 
being rather less than two-thirds of those of the diademed sifaka. In colour, the 
long hairs on the forehead immediately above the eyes are grey at the base and 
pinkish at the tips; while there is in some individuals a small white or yellowish 
band, more or less irregular, across the crown of the head. The rest of the head, 
the neck, the back, and the arms are covered with woolly fur, of which the 
individual hairs are grey at the roots, reddish in the middle, and black at the 
tips; an arrangement which communicates a peculiar appearance to the whole fur. 
The concealed ears are reddish, and the cheeks grey. The loins and flanks are 
of a much lighter colour than the back, especially in the region of the tail, where 
there is a large triangular patch of pinkish-white running forwards into the dark 
area of the body. The hind-limbs are still lighter in colour, and as the hairs here 
tend to grow into bunches or tufts, they reveal their grey bases and pinkish tips, 
thus giving to the pelage a mottled appearance. The bushy tail is of a decidedly 
pink tint, more especially for the first third of its length. The hands and feet are 
reddish. 
There are, however, great variations of colour among different individuals of 
the avahi, inhabiting even the same district; some having the pelage almost 
uniformly reddish, while in others all the parts above the thighs are nearly pure 
white. 
According;- to Messrs. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier, the avahis, instead of 
living in small troops like the indris and sifakas, are found either solitary or in 
pairs. They are completely nocturnal, sleeping during the day curled up in the 
fork of a branch, and issuing forth in search of food with the falling shades of 
vol. 1.—14 
