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Show 968 MR. ST. GEORGE MIVART ON THE LEMURIDAE. [Dec. 12, intermediate condition, then those who would make C. furcifer tbe type of a new genus on such grounds may find themselves logically compelled to make a separate genus of each species. This new form has recently been described and figured by M M . H. Schlegel and Francois P. L. Pollen (in the first number of their Recherches sur la Faune de Madagascar, 1867, p. 12, pl. 6). The authors remark that it is **.-* plus voisine du Microcebus typicus de Smith que des autres especes;" but add that Dr. Peters found it, although similar in size, to differ from the latter species by its tail washed with black, by the absence of the black circles about the eyes, and by the length of its ears, which are one-third longer than those of the so-called M. typicus. The skull, unfortunately, is not yet figured; and in the absence of any description of it, or of the dentition, it is impossible to say definitively whether it should be placed in the genus Cheirogaleus or in Microcebus. Its resemblance to the British-Museum specimen, however, would suggest its loca tion in the former genus ; and, as before said, it may be that its characters may justify (if they offer a certain intermediate structure) the fusion of the two genera into one by the abolition of the term Microcebus altogether. The next form to be noticed is one of great interest, namely Lepilemur, a genus still absent (as far as I know) from all the collections in this country. In Paris there is a skin (the type of the genus and species) of L. musfelinus, also the skull extracted from it, and a skull of the new species (L. ruficaudatus) recently characterized* by M . Alfred Grandidier. Lepilemur musfelinus has recently been described and figured by Messrs. Schlegel and Pollen (in their work above referred to, at p. 10, pl. 4). L. ruficaudatus is as yet unfigured. In the skulls of both these species there is no trace of any upper incisor; and the specimens show the correctness of M . Gervais's Fig. 5. Lepilemur musfelinus. Copied from Gervais's ' Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes.' * Rev. Zool. July 1867, p. 256. Cinerco-rufescens, capite nigrescente ; artubus posterioribus pallide cinereis. Cauda rufa. Jugulo fulvescenfe, abdomineque albido. Long. tot. 56", corp. 31", caud. 25". |