An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker.

Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct / by William Henry Flower and Richard Lydekker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Fig. 328), of a delicate gray colour, and with a long tail marked Avith alternating rings of black and Avhite. This is said by Mr. G. A. Shaw 1 to be an exception to all the other Lemurs in not being arboreal, but living chiefly among rocks and bushes. Pollen, how- ever, says that it inhabits the forests of the south-west parts of Madagascar, living, like its congeners, in considerable troops, and not differing from them in its habits. He adds that it is extremely gentle, and active and giviceful in its movements, and utters at mtervals a little plaintive cry like that of a domestic cat. All the others have the tail of uniform coloiu-. The largest species is L. vanus, the Euffed Lemui-, sometimes black and white, and some- times reddish-brown, the variation apparently not depending on sex or age, but on the individual. In L. macaco the male is black and the female red. L. mongoz, L. coUaris, and L. alhifrons are other well-known species. Hapalertmr:-—Ui^i^Gv incisors very small, subequal, separated widely in the middle line. Those of either side in contact with each other and with the canine, the posterior one being placed on the inside, and not in front of the latter. Muzzle very short and truncated. Mamm^ four. There is apparently but one species H gnseus, smaller than any of the true Lemurs, of a dark gray colom',jvith round face and short ears. It is quite nocturnal, and lives chiefly among bamboos, subsisting on the young shoots A second^ species has been named H. simus, but it is doubtful if it is more than a variety. Lepidoleimtr.^—UTpjper incisors absent or rudimentary. Muzzle more elongated than in the last. No distinct os centrale in the carpus. L. mustehnus is the best-known species. It has at all events when adult, no upper incisors. It is rare, and like in its habits. A second closely allied species, but with better developed premaxiUa,, containing a pair of^mal styliform mcisors, has been described by Peters * under the name of Myxocehus caniceps. Subfamily Galaginae.—Dentition as in Lemmince, from which the members of this subfamily are distinguished by the elongation and tL T^^l^.^ ^^li-r modification of the calcaneum of th! 1 '^x P^^*^^ °^ the whole of the latter having the form of almost cylindrical rods placed side pfojoi^iom'^^^^ ''''''' ^^^^^ -orJu::i Tnd f^v.tt7f''''-lr^T PP' P''^^^^ ''^ ^^^^^ than the first molar, with only one external cusp. The animals included I. Geoffroy, Oat. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris w 75 ns^i^ a ^']\ Lcmlemiiv 4 j-aiLs, p. /o (1651). Amended from ■^0 p Monatsh. Ak. Berlin, 1874, p. 690. ueottroy, Ann. duMusdmn, vol. xix. p. 171 (1812). 44