The dorsal and lumbar vertebræ together do not exceed twenty in number.
The hind portion of the cerebellum is large, which points to intellectual inferiority in the True Lemurs as compared with the Apes.
The species of this genus are all confined to the island of Madagascar and some of the smaller adjacent islands. They are gregarious, living in large companies in the forests, feeding on fruits, insects, and such small animals, birds, and lizards as they may capture. Like the Howlers of S. America and the Gibbons of the East Indies, they are very noisy. Their agility is wonderfully great, and is displayed chiefly in the evening. During the brighter hours of the day they sit somnolent, either alone with their heads buried between their arms, their tail coiled round the neck, or in twos or threes embracing each other with their arms. In walking they use their fore-limbs less as hands, and more as feet than do the members of the next family—the Indrisinæ—both when on the ground, as well as when climbing among the trees.
I. THE RUFFED LEMUR. LEMUR VARIUS.
Lemur macaco, var. Schreber, Säugeth., p. 142, pl. 40 B (1775).
Lemur macaco et L. ruber, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 159 (1812).
Lemur varius, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 71, no. 2 (1851); Schl., Mus. Pays. Bas., vii., p. 301 (1876); Milne-Edwards et Grandid., H. N. Madag., Mamm., Atlas, pls. 123-129 (1690).
(Plate VII.)
Characters.—Face and top of head black; a stripe over the eyes, ridge of nose and tip of nostrils, creamy-white; a patch on the shoulder, the inside of the fore-legs, the inner surface of body, a patch on the front of the thighs, the inner side of the limbs, and the feet, black; tail black, washed with white on the upper surface; rest of body creamy-white.
PLATE VII.