Copy 2

Animals in menageries / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animals in menageries / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/388 page 41
    that an animal which could howl much louder than a bear was, of necessity, a most fierce and formidable creature. When feeding, it sits up like a monkey, hold- ing its food in its hands. The size of the specimen examined by Edwards, was that of the smaller sort of house cat ; the tail was longer than the whole body, and the whole animal of a deep black. Tue Rine-TaAILED LEMUR. Lemur Catta, Linn. Mococo, Buffon. The Maucauco, Edwards. Ring-tailed Macauco, Pennant. The ring-tailed lemur is confessedly by far the most elegant of the whole tribe. It seems also to be a rare animal, at least in our menageries, since it does not yet appear in the collection of the Zoological Society. Ed- wards has given a very accurate figure and description of an individual which was brought from Madagascar by his friend captain Worth, and which Edwards “kept alive at his house for some time.” Independent of its rarity and beauty, its character is particularly ‘confiding and affectionate, while its motions are described as hav- ing an ease and elegance surpassing almost every other quadruped. In their native state, these animals live in societies, and are seen in troops of thirty or forty to- gether in the woods, where they feed principally upon fruits. In captivity it delights in sunshine, and in sit- ting before a fire: its general attitude at such times is similar to that of a squirrel when feeding, sitting up- | right, and often extending forwards its spread hands. The palm of the hand is stated to possess a peculiar organisation ; it is extended by a straight line concealed under the hair as far as the middle of the arm, where it appears uncovered: by means of this, when the arms are extended, the fingers necessarily close; and this ac- counts for the facility with which these animals suspend themselves from the branches of trees.* Its pur is not * The singular formation of the arm, above stated, is deserving of great- attention, not merely as an isolated fact explaining the habits of this par-
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