We have now arrived at the highest division of the Mammalia, the order Primates, a term here signifying "first" in rank of importance by reason of the possession of a structure and faculties superior, as a whole, to any other class. It includes the lemurs, the monkeys and baboons, the anthropoid apes, and mankind. Man's undeniable superiority to all the others is intellectual rather than physical (for in this or that particular he may be inferior in ability to many of the lower animals), and is much less apparent in primitive men than in those highly civilized.
All primates have five fingers or toes, each covered at the tip by a flat nail; and in most cases the thumb or great toe, or both, are "opposable"—that is, may be bent around opposite the other digits so as to form a grasping organ. The higher the primate in the scale of organization the more perfectly are its forelimbs and hands adapted to seizing and handling objects, and its hind limbs to supporting and moving the body; and the whole sole of the foot rests upon the ground. These and other characteristics fit the primates for life in trees, where nearly all spend their time. The number of young, as a rule, is no more than two annually, and they are born in a helpless condition, hence they must for a period be nursed and be carried about by the mother. The food consists almost wholly of fruit and other soft or easily digested vegetable materials, insects and eggs, and the teeth are of nearly even size.
LEMURS, GALAGOS AND AYE-AYES
The lemurs, or half-apes, are a large group of small tree-dwelling animals that paleontology shows were in early Tertiary times much more closely connected with monkeys than they are now; and it also shows that in a former age their ancestors were scattered all over the temperate parts of the globe; this assists us to account for the strange distribution of the remnants that now live—a part of them in the Malayan archipelago and a part in central Africa and Madagascar, in which island, indeed, lemurs abound more than elsewhere, owing largely, no doubt, to the scarcity of enemies. They differ from monkeys in having elongated jaws, giving a foxlike aspect to the face, in the woolliness of the coat (as a rule), and in their nocturnal habits and weird cries that have been the source of many curious superstitions and a reverence that no monkey ever inspired.
The most specialized of the group is a wan little Malayan creature about the size of a small rat, with a long tail, long hind legs, and toes ending in pads that enable the tarsier, or "malmag," as it is called, to climb the smoothest bamboo. Its eyes are so big they seem to leave no room for cheeks. Even more curious is the aye-aye of Madagascar, which resembles a small squirrel with a terrier's face; its hind feet are like a monkey's hand, and its forefeet are composed of very long naked fingers armed with sharp claws useful in pulling bugs and grubs out of crevices in bark, or the pulp out of fruits.
The typical lemurs have rounded heads, doglike muzzles, and a soft, thick, woolly fur of various colors that is usually extended to form a long, bushy tail; and the largest of them, the "babakoto" of eastern Africa, is as big as a cat, and makes the woods ring at night with doleful howls. They hide in holes in trees or in leafy nests during the day, and at night wander about in trees, or on the rocks of the mountains they frequent, in search of insects and sleeping birds and their eggs, etc. All the lemurs proper, and their relatives, the endrinas, belong to Madagascar. On the mainland a somewhat different race, the galagos, abound throughout central Africa, and are renowned for their leaping powers, general activity, and willingness to eat anything they can catch or find ripe in the way of sweet fruit. They are interesting as pets. The "slow lemurs" of the Malayan islands, on the other hand, are noted for their sleepiness, moving about the trees with such slothlike sluggishness and caution that it is a wonder they ever capture enough food to keep alive. They are regarded with great fear by the natives, not because they are more harmful than the other lemurs, which are also dreaded, but because of strange supernatural powers attributed to them. These ideas are older than our science, for the name, Lemures, given them means "ghosts."
A remarkable thing about the Primates is that they show, even in man himself, many structural traits recalling the anatomy of that remote source of so many mammalian branches, the creodonts; and the lemurs seem to stand between the Insectivora and the Primates, and are certainly the most ancient part of the latter order, with many affinities to the former. In a similar way they are connected with the monkeys and apes by the marmosets. A very suggestive fact is that the scattered distribution of modern lemurs much resembles that of the comparatively few existing insectivores, especially as to Madagascar, which was united with the continent of Africa during the earlier half of the Tertiary era.
MARMOSETS, MONKEYS AND BABOONS
The marmosets, or "teetees" (titis), are a small family (Hapalidæ) of little, arboreal, monkeylike creatures much enjoyed as pets in the American tropics, but rarely able to endure our northern winters even when protected most carefully from the cold. They look and act much like pretty squirrels, have long, but not prehensile tails, and some of them, as the "tamarins," have long silky manes. They possess several lemurlike features, and, as has been said, are a connecting link between the lemurs and the monkeys proper.