Lemur anjuanensis, Geoffr., Ann. Mus., xix., p. 161 (1812).
Prosimia melanocephala, Gray, P. Z. S., 1863, p. 137, pl. xviii.
Prosimia xanthomystax, Gray, P. Z. S., 1863, p. 138, pl. xvii.
Characters.—Fur woolly and thick; eyelashes long; some long bristles behind the angle of the mouth; face long; no ear-tufts and whiskers, but a sub-auricular patch of long hair; some long hairs on the digits; tail bushy.
Male.—Head, face, streak across the crown of head and down the forehead brownish-black; ears of the same colour, white-fringed; cheeks and a spot on the sides of the forehead iron-grey; sub-auricular cheek-patch white, slightly washed with rufous; rest of upper surface reddish-grey; tail darker; chest and under side rufous-grey.
Female.—Rufous-brown above; neck and shoulders white; throat white; frontal spot black; face whitish.
The colour of the fur in this species varies to an extraordinary degree, and before this fact was recognised, a number of supposed species, founded on the colour of the animals alone, were described. In course of time, however, as specimens were obtained in greater number, it became evident that the variation was only in the colour of the fur, and that there was none in their anatomical and osteological structure to warrant their being considered distinct species. They have, therefore, all been now classified by Professor Milne-Edwards and M. Grandidier in their great work on the Natural History of Madagascar, as so many varieties of one species, Lemur mongoz. Of these varieties, the most important are:—
THE RED-FOOTED LEMUR. LEMUR RUFIPES.
Male.—Face in front of a line above the eyes, dark reddish-brown; hands and feet bright rufous-brown; under side of body and inner side of limbs reddish-grey.
Female.—Wrist and ankles with adjacent part of limbs above brownish-red.