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Show 154 MR. ST. GEORGE MIVART ON MICRORHYNCHUS. [Mar. 13, liar feature is its small head and exceedingly short muzzle, in which it differs remarkably from the other Indrisinar, and from the true Lemurs. Fully the proximal third of the sole of the hind extremity is hairy, and the four outer digits of both the anterior and the posterior extremities are united together by integument as far as the distal ends of the proximal phalanges of the respective digits. The index finger is very short, and the pollex slender and placed far back. The dimensions of the skin are :- inches. Length from muzzle to root of tail 12*7 of tail 13-0 from shoulder to extremity of fourth digit of hand 7"5 from groin to extremity of fourth digit of foot .. 12*0 from shoulder to root of tail 8*0 of hand (palm and fourth digit) 2-8 - of foot (sole and fourth digit) 3*5 Fig. 1. Left dental series of both jaws. Scale, twice nat. size. As regards the dentition, there are two pairs of upper incisors, which are widely separated from each other. Though the prsemaxilla is very short, yet all the incisors are in front of the canines (thus differing from Hapalemur), and, the inner one of each pair being in front of the outer one, two incisors are visible when the skull is viewed in profile. The posterior one of each pair is very considerably larger than the more anterior one-a condition which obtains in no other genus of the order, and which presents a marked contrast to the proportions existing in Indris and Propithecus*. The upper canine is very peculiar, and much resembles the tooth immediately behind it. It is the most vertically extended tooth in the upper jaw, yet but very slightly exceeds the most anterior premolar in that or in any dimensionf. * In D e Blainville's figures (pis. 4 & 8) of Indris, the posterior incisor is represented as the larger, but not so in pi. 11. Of the specimens in the British Museum, in one the posterior incisors are decidedly the smaller; in the other they all appear subequal, as they are in the specimen in the College of Surgeons' Museum. In both specimens of Propithecus in the British Museum the anterior incisors are the larger. t Such is the case in the spejim3n described, and in the skull figured, by De Blainville (Osteographie, Lemur, pi. 8 ) ; but in the skull at Leyden the canine is more produced, judging from Prof. V a n der Hoeven's figure (he. cit. pi. 1. fig. 6) and from the woodcut (of the same skull?) in Todd's Cyclopaedia, art. Quadrumana, vol. iv. p. 215. fig. 136. |
