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Show 44 . REV< G. A. SHAW ON THE AYE-AYE. [Feb. 6, 4. A few Rough Notes on the Aye-aye. By the Rev. G. A. SHAW. [Received January 23, 1883.] This curious animal, the Chiromys madagascariensis, has evidently been named from the exclamations of the people who first saw it, and who, upon first sight of any thing so peculiar, would naturally utter the usual Malagasy exclamation of surprise, Hay ! Hay ! And at the present time among the people it is called the Haihay (pronounced Hayebaye). Being a nocturnal animal, it is very difficult to get any reliable information concerning its habits in the wild state, and native reports are altogether contradictory with respect to these matters. Even with reference to its natural food no satisfactory explanation can be obtained from the people. Many assert positively that it lives on honey ; but one I had in captivity for several months would not eat honey in any form, either strained or in the comb, or mixed with various things I thought he might have a fancy for. Others say it lives on fruits and leaves ; others that birds and eggs are its natural food. I fancy from what I saw of m y captive that both these conjectures are nearer tbe truth ; for after a few days, during which it would eat nothing, and it was thought that the proper food had not been offered (but it was in reality pining or sulking), it took several fruits which I was able to procure for it. It liked bananas; but it made sorry efforts at eating them, its teeth being so placed that its mouth was frequently clogged with them. The small fruits of various native shrubs it also devoured, as also rice boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar ; but meat, larvae, moths, beetles, and eggs it would not touch. But I noticed that when I came near its cage with a light, it almost invariably started and went for a little distance in chase of the shadow cast by the pieces of banana attached to the wire-work in the front of its cage ; and I think that if I could have procured some small birds it would have, if not devoured them, at any rate killed them for their blood, as some Lemurs are known to do1. It drank water occasionally, but in such a way as to make it highly probable that it does not drink from streams or pools in the ordinary way. It did not hold its food in its hands as the Lemurs which I have had in captivity have done, but merely used its hands to steady it on the bottom of the cage. But whenever it had eaten, although it did not always clean its hands, it invariably drew each of its long claws through its mouth, 1 In proof of this, I need only instance one fact seen by several persons. A. vessel under Captain Lassen was sailing along the coast between here and Imahanore in the south, when, after a stormy morning, two land-birds, which had apparently been driven from shore and were exhausted, settled in the afternoon on one of the yards. A tame Lemur (Lemur albifrons) on board saw the birds alight, and crept up to them, seizing and killing them immediately, but after having sucked the blood let them fall upon the deck. |
