The first African genus is Perodicticus.
ANGWÁNTIBO. (Slightly altered after Huxley.)
VAN BOSMAN’S POTTO.[137]
As far back as the year 1705, while on a voyage to the Guinea coast, the Dutch navigator, Van Bosman, came across a new and strange little quadruped which, on his return, he figured and briefly described under the name of Potto. The colonists knew it as the Bush-dog, and that it was slothful and retiring, seldom making its appearance except in the night-time, and then to feed on the cassada and other vegetables. It is remarkable for its singular hand, which has, as it were, a deformed forefinger, and for a seeming protrusion of the neck-bones.
Like other tropical night-animals, the home or wild habits of the Potto have only been loosely studied. It is not restricted to the northern parts of Guinea, but is found on the Gold Coast and at the Gaboon River under the Equator. It shows a certain agility at night, clambering up the most smooth and polished branches with ease. When caught, and in captivity, one authority says, it sped along the cornices and angles within the house wherever there was the least elevation from the wall.
HAND AND FOOT OF ARCTOCEBUS.
(After Huxley, Zool. Soc. Proc.)
Those specimens which have lived in the Regent’s Park Gardens from time to time have fed on the same kind of food and exhibited no special differences of habit from the Slow Loris of Asia, presently to be described, if we except a more intractable disposition; for they have seemed rather addicted to giving an ugly bite whenever attempted to be handled, however gently. Mr. Bartlett managed to get one that showed a more amiable disposition, courting kindly stroking. When first obtained, it was so young that doubts were entertained of its surviving, especially as it suffered from the cold weather. To obviate this a small bag of hare-skin was made, fur inside, and Master Potto was placed therein. Furthermore, a bitch having whelps on the premises, one of the latter was put in with the young African for a while, then another, and so on in rotation, the animal heat of Potto being duly sustained. The latter clung to the puppies as it would to its mother, hugging them on the belly so tight that the doggies did not quite seem to relish their forced companion. This nursing, however, did well, and Potto was duly reared, and became on the whole good tempered.
Mr. Skues records having purchased a female at Cape Coast on the 31st March, 1869, along with its young one, which had been born on the 8th February. They slept all day; the mother usually perched on a door, with the youngster clasped to her belly, by its fore and hind extremities. At dusk they came down and wandered about the room all night. After a time, young Potto scampered hither and thither on his own account. Milk and bread they refused, but would feed on pine-apples and bananas, with water. Although there were insects about the room, as is the case always in tropical climates, the Pottos were never detected eating them, but one day the mother was found busily munching at a tray of preserved Beetles. At Accra, circumstances prevented due attention being given them, and there the young one died aged twenty-two weeks. The mother survived only six weeks. The negroes seemed to be much afraid of the Potto, which they called “Aposo,” or “Aposou.” It inhabits West Africa and the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea.