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Show 74 MAMMALIA. They feed on insects, occasionally on smal~ birds and quadrupeds, h · 't · excessively slow and mode of hfe nocturnal. M. Car-t etr gal ts ' 1- b · d' 'd lisle has found that the base of the arteries of the 1m ~ 1s IVI ed into small branches, as in the true Sloths. Two species only are known both of them from the East Indies. 'Lem. tardigradus, L.; (The Slow Loris, or Sloth of Bengal.) B uf f . S upp. VII , 36. Fawn-coloured grey, a bro. wn streak along the back; two of the upper incisors sometimes want-ing.( I) . Lem. gracilis, L. (The Slender Loris.) Buff. XIII, so,_ and better, Seb. I, 47. Fawn-coloured grey; no ~orsal stripe; rather smaller than the preceding; nose more raised by a projection of the intermaxillaries.(2) GALAGO, Geoff.-OToLINOus, Illig. The teeth and insectivorous regimen of the preceding; elongated tarsi which produce a disproportion in the dimensions of their hind feet; a long tufted tail ; large membranous ears and great eyes, which announce nocturnal habits. There are several species known, all from Africa.(3) It ap· pears also that we should refer to them an animal of that country (Lemur potto, Gm.), Bosman, Yoy. in Guin., P· 25.2, No. 4, whose gait is said to be as slow as that of the Lor1s and Sloths. TARSIUS. Elongated tarsi, and all the other details of form belonging to the preceding division; but the space between the molars and incisors is occupied by several shorter teeth; the middle superior incisors are lengthened and resemble canini. The muzzle is very short, and the eyes still larger than those of the Galago. They are nocturnal animals, and feed on insects. From the Moluccas. Lemur spec· trum, Pall., Buff. XIII, 9.( 4) (1) The slowness of its gait, which caused it to be mistaken for a Sloth, has induced some authors to maintain, in opposition to Buffon and to truth, that the genus of the Sloths exists also in Asia. . (2) From this difference in the nose, Geoffroy makes of the first spec1e1 the genus NYcTICERUI, and of the se~ond that of LoRis. (3) The great Galago, as large as a Rabbit (Galagocrassicaudatus, Geoff.). The middling one the size of a Rat ( Galago senegalensis, id.); Schreb. XXXVIII, Bb, Audeb. Gal. pl. 1.-The small one a little less, Brown, Ill. 44.-Compare also the Galago of Demidorf, Fischer, Mem. des Nat. de Mouscou, I, pl.l. ( 4) Compare the Tarsius fuacomanus, Fischer, Annat. des Maki's, pl. 3, and the Thrsiw bancantl8, Horsfield, Java. MAMMALIA. 75 ORDER III. CARNARIA. This order consists of a considerable and varied assemblage of unguiculated quadrupeds, possessing like Man and the Quadrumana the three sorts of teeth, but which have no opposable thumb to their fore-feet. Their food is animal, and the more exclusively so, as their grinders are the more trenchant. Such as have them wholly or partly tuberculous, take more or less vegetable aliment, and those in which they are bristled with points live principally on Insects. The articu· lation of their lower jaw, being transversely directed and hinge-like, allows of no lateral motion, it can only open and shut. Although the convolutions of the brain . are still tolerably well marked, it has no third lobe, nor does it cover the cerebellum any more than in the following families; the orbit is not separated from the temporal fossa in the skeleton; the cranium is narrowed and the zygomatic arches widened and raised, in order to give more strength and volume to the muscles of their jaws. Their predominant sense is that of smell, and their pituitary membrane is generally spread over numerous bony laminre. The fore-arm has still the power of ~evolving in nearly all of them, although with less facility than m the Quadrumana, and they never have the thumb of the anterior extremities opposed to the other toes. On account of the substantial nature of the aliment, and to avoid the putrefaction it would undergo by remaining too long in an elongated canal, their intestines are less voluminous. There is a great variety in their forms and in the details of Travellers should search for certain animals drawn by Commerson, and which ~· Geoffroy has had engraved. Ann. Mus. XIX, 10, under the name of Oheirogaletll. hese figures seem to announce a new genus or subgenus of the Quadrumana. |