Henry Ogg Forbes

“ Its attenuated wire-like finger acts as a probe to discover their position, and its powerful incisor teeth are used to cut down upon the tunnel of its prey, which consists principally of the Andraitra, the larva of a Beetle, which it then extracts with the same digit. The juices of plants are also supposed to form part of its food. It drinks after the manner of many Monkeys, by dipping its fingers into the water, and drawing them through its mouth. The Aye-Aye is fearless of Man, but in its wakeful hours, during the night, when irritated it can be very savage and strike out with its hands. ”

“ The Tarsier is said to climb easily, even without grasping, by means of the round discs on its slender finger-tips, which, like suckers, enable it to hold on by the side pressure of its limbs to any smooth surface, such as the stems of the bamboo-brakes which it frequents. ”

“ The Tarsier seldom makes any kind of noise, but when it does emit a sound, it is a sharp, shrill call. The female produces one, rarely two, young at a birth; these are similar to the parents. They are covered with hair, and have the eyes open. ”

“ Of the upper jaw, the incisors are prominent and unequal, the anterior ones being larger than the posterior, and in contact in the middle line, thus leaving no central gap in the front of the jaw, as is the rule among Lemurs; the canines are about as long vertically as the inner incisor, and are smaller than the corresponding tooth in the True Lemurs; the pre-molars are canine-like, sharp, pointed, and furnished with a cingulum; the anterior pre-molar is smaller than the two others; the posterior pre-molar has one external and one internal cusp ”

“ The long and slender toes terminate in round, sucker-like discs, and are furnished with flat nails, except on the second and third toes, where the nails are merely compressed claws. The fore-limb, with or without the hand, is longer than the trunk; its digits also are long and slender (the third being longest, and the second equal to the fourth) and, like those of the foot, terminate in round sucker-like discs. Both the wrist and ankle are haired. ”

“ There is an oblique ridge between the hind outer and the front inner cusp, and another is often present between the front outer cusp and the anterior "heel," producing, as Huxley has pointed out, almost a double crescentic pattern, as in many lower Mammals. The posterior molar has four or five cusps.
Of the milk-teeth, the incisors in the upper jaw change first. Of the molars, two are developed before the change of the pre-molars. In the lower jaw the incisors change first, and when two or three pre-molars have developed the last molar has still to come. ”

“ The long tendons of the muscles for flexing the digits (the flexor longus digitorum) differ generally in arrangement from those of the higher Primates.
The Lemuroids are of no commercial value to Man.
As regards their distribution, the Lemuroidea are now absolutely confined to the Old World, and predominate in the island of Madagascar, where, as M. Grandidier remarks in his magnificent work on that country, there is scarcely a little wood in any district in which they are not found. Indeed, of the nearly seventy species of Mammals inhabiting that island, thirty-five, or one-half, are Lemurs. ”

“ In the young of some species the orbit is more enclosed than it is in the adult: the orifice for the lachrymal duct of the eye is placed external to the margin of the orbit: the hollow for the olfactory lobes of the brain is always large. ”

“ The Lemuroidea are almost entirely arboreal, and seldom come to the ground, except the Sifakas, which then progress on their hind legs by a series of bounds, holding their hands over their head in a ludicrous fashion. Most of them are nocturnal, or crepuscular, sleeping the greater part of the day in holes or on a branch of a tree coiled up in a ball. ”

“ The trunk is relatively long and compressed, and the tail when long is never truly prehensile. Of the limbs, the posterior are longer than the anterior, and all have five digits, each bearing a flat nail except the second toe, which has invariably a long pointed claw, their tips ending in prominent discoidal tactile pads. ”

“ The Tarsiers are distinguished externally by the possession of a rounded head, and a very short, pointed muzzle; by their very large, long and naked ears, and eyes so remarkably large and protruding, as to form the most prominent feature of the face. ”

“ The female produces but one young at a birth, and builds, in the fork of a tree, a ball-like nest, two feet in diameter, with an entrance hole in the side, forming it of the rolled up leaves of the Travellers'-tree, and lining it with small twigs and dry leaves. ”

“ Olfactory lobes of brain covered by the cerebrum; convolutions and grooves of cerebrum similar to those in normal Lemurs. Intestine 26 inches long; no striped tissue in the muscular sheath of the gullet at the anterior end of the stomach. Digastric muscle (for moving the jaws) very much developed in accordance with the great gnawing powers of the species.
Fur on back, flanks, tail, and limbs dark brown, nearly black, but with the white of the basal half of the hairs shining through; hair woolly at base; long hairs on top of head and back of neck tipped with white ”

“ Members of the family also occur across the whole of the neighbouring continent of Africa, but their northern range does not reach quite to the tropic, whereas it extends some few degrees beyond it in the Southern Hemisphere. ”

“ According to the notes of this excellent field-naturalist, it has a habit of turning its head almost completely round without moving the rest of its body. This very remarkable creature lives in pairs in the tropical forests, in holes in the tree stems, or under their roots, feeding chiefly on insects and small lizards, which, as Mr. ”