THE TARSIER. 
^LONG with Tagals, Ygorottes, 
and other queer human beings 
Uncle Sam has annexed in the 
Philippine islands, says the 
Chronicle, is the tarsier, an animal 
which is now declared to be the grand- 
father of man. 
They say the tarsier is the ancestor of 
the common monkey, which is the an- 
cestor of the anthropoid ape, which 
some claim as the ancestor of man. 
A real tarsier will soon make his ap- 
pearance at the national zoological 
park. His arrival is awaited with in- 
tense interest. 
Monsieur Tarsier is a very gifted ani- 
mal. He derives his name from the 
enormous development of the tarsus, or 
ankle bones of his legs. His eyes are 
enormous, so that he can see in the 
dark. They even cause him to be 
called a ghost. His fingers and toes 
are provided with large pads, which 
enable him to hold on to almost any- 
thing. 
Professor Hubrecht of the University 
of Utrecht has lately announced that 
Monsieur Tarsier is no less a personage 
than a "link" connecting Grandfather 
Monkey with his ancestors. Thus the 
scale of the evolution theorists would 
be changed by Professor Hubrecht to 
run: Man, ape, monkey, tarsier, and so 
on, tarsier appearing as the great-grand- 
father of mankind. 
Tarsier may best be described as 
having a face like an owl and a body, 
limbs, and tail like those of a monkey. 
His sitting height is about that of a 
squirrel. As his enormous optics 
would lead one to suppose, he cuts 
capers in the night and sleeps in the 
daytime, concealed usually in aban- 
doned clearings, where new growth has 
sprung up to a height of twenty feet or 
more. Very often he sleeps in a stand- 
ing posture, grasping the lower stem 
of a small tree with his long and 
slender fingers and toes. During his 
nightly wanderings he utters a squeak 
like that of a monkey. During the 
day the pupils of his eyes contract to 
fine lines, but after dark expand until 
they fill most of the irises. From his 
habit of feeding only upon insects he 
has a strong, bat-like odor. 
John Whitehead, who has spent the 
last three years studying the animals 
of the Philippines, foreshadows the 
probable behavior of the tarsier when 
he arrives at the national "zoo." The 
Philippine natives call the little crea- 
ture " magou." 
" In Samar," says Mr. Whitehead, in 
a report just received at the Smith- 
sonian, " where at different times I 
kept several tarsiers alive, I found 
them very docile and easily managed 
during the day. They feed freely off 
grasshoppers, sitting on their haunches 
on my hand. When offered an insect 
the tarsier would stare for a short time 
with its most wonderful eyes, then 
slowly bend forward, and, with a 
sudden dash, would seize the insect 
with both hands and instantly carry it 
to its mouth, shutting its eyes and 
screwing up its tiny face in a most 
whimsical fashion. The grasshopper 
was then quickly passed through the 
sharp little teeth, the kicking legs be- 
ing held with both hands. 
"When the insect was beyond fur- 
ther mischief the large eyes of the 
tarsier would open and the legs and 
wings were then bitten off, while the 
rest of the body was thoroughly mas- 
ticated. My captive would also drink 
fresh milk from a spoon. After the 
sun had set this little animal became 
most difficult to manage, escaping 
when possible and making tremendous 
jumps from chair to chair. When on 
the floor it bounded about like a min- 
iature kangaroo, traveling about the 
room on its hind legs with the tail 
stretched out and curved upward, utter- 
ing peculiar, shrill, monkeylike squeaks 
and biting quite viciously when the op- 
portunity offered." 
22S 
