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Show 1884.] MR. F. E. BEDDARD ON HAPALEMUR GRISEUS. 391 I. O n some Points in the Structure of Hapalemur griseus. B y P. E. B E D D A R D , M.A., F.Z.S., Prosector to the Society. [Received June 3, 1884.] A male Hapalemur griseus was purchased by the Society in March 1883, and its arrival at the Gardens was recorded bv Mr. Sclater in the ' Proceedings ' for that year (P. Z. S. 1883, p. 178). On March 17th of the present year it died and came into my hands for dissection. So far as I am aware, there is no published description of the anatomy of the soft parts of this Lemur; and our knowledge is at present limited to its external characters, and to the dentition and osteology, which have been described by Prof. Mivart1, who places the genus Hapalemur, together with Lepilemur and Lemur, in his subfamily Lemurinse. I may commence by a few words about the species of Hapalemur. The genus Hapalemur was originally founded by Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire2, who distinguished two species, H. griseus and H. olivaceus. These were regarded by him as distinct not merely by reason of the different colour of the fur implied by the specific name of each, but also on account of certain differences in the form of the lower jaw, the exact nature of which is, however, not stated. In their ' Faune de Madagascar '3 Schlegel and Pollen united these two species under the name of H. griseus; the differences between the two not being regarded by these authors as of specific value. In 18704 Dr. J. E. Gray briefly described a third species of Hapalemur, to which he gave the name of II. simus, distinguishing it from H. griseus bv a number of osteological characters as well as by the colour of the fur. The differences indeed between the two species appeared to Dr. Gray to be of sufficient importance to warrant the separation of Hapalemur simus as a distinct subgenus, to which the name Prolemur is applied. I D a postscript added to this paper Dr. Gray writes that his Hapalemur simus appeared to be in reality the same species as that described by Pollen and Schlegel as Hapalemur griseus, inasmuch as their figure5 of the skull of this species shows the " truncated form of the nose and the wide palate " which is characteristic of Hapalemur simus, and is not to be found in the species known in England as Hapalemur griseus. Quite recently Dr. Schlegel has written a short paper in the ' Notes from the Leyden Museum '6 criticizing Dr. Gray's definition of Hapalemur simus, and stating that the alleged differences in the form of the skull between this species and H. griseus have no existence and that a careful comparison between the two species only 1 P. Z. S. 1864, p. 611, andl873, p. 484. 2 ' Catalogue des Primates,' p. 75. » < Faune de Madagascar,' 1868, t. i. p. 6. ' P. Z. S. 1870, p. 828. ' Loc. rit. pi. 7. fig. 4. 6 Vol. ii. p. 45. |