A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 1 (of 2)Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Science
A Hand-book to the Primates, Volume 1 (of 2)
Forbes, Henry O. (Henry Ogg)
Primates
Top of head grey, the base of the hairs Mouse-grey, with black or white
tips; a triangular patch on the middle of the head, darker; band on the
sides and middle of the nose dark brown, widening out on the forehead and
over the eyes; a dark ring round the eyes, merging into the dark brown
colour of the nose; front border of the ears, a patch behind the latter,
the lips, chin, sides of cheek, and chest a creamy- or yellowish-white;
throat grey; upper side of the body, outside of the limbs, and dorsal end
of the tail, rufous-grey; back portion of {79}the upper part of the thigh,
the hinder part of the belly, and the greater part of the upper side of the
tail yellowish-rufous; the upper side of hands dark brown, of the feet
yellowish-grey; extremity of tail blackish-brown. Length of body, 12½
inches; tail, 13½ inches.
DISTRIBUTION.--Confined to Madagascar.
HABITS.--The habits of the Hattock, as the natives name this animal, are
quite unknown.
THE GENTLE-LEMURS. GENUS HAPALEMUR.
_Hapalemur_, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 74 (1851).
This genus has been constituted for two species of a specialised type of
Lemur, characterised by a globose head, a short muzzle, with a tapering
nose and short hairy ears. The hind-limbs are longer than the fore-limbs,
the feet short and broad, and the tail hairy and equal in length to the
body. The female has four teats, two on the breast, or on the shoulder, and
two on the abdomen.
In regard to their skeletal characters, the facial portion of the skull is
short and narrow in front--the nasal bones being arched--and the brain-case
rounded. The cranium presents no elevated frontal crests, as among the
members of the next genus (_Lepidolemur_). The pre-maxillary bones are very
small. The hind margin of the bony palate, which dilates posteriorly, does
not extend behind the mid-line of the last molar. The squamosal region of
the skull and the outer and posterior--the mastoidal--portion of the
ear-capsules (periotic bones), is not inflated in the members of this
genus. Their lower jaw is very characteristic, being massive in front and
possessing a very long symphysis (or line of junction of its two halves),
its angle being {80}also very large, and produced downward, inward, and
backward, even more than in the genus _Indris_. The _naviculare_ bone of
the ankle (_tarsus_) is relatively short, thus differing from the same
region in _Microcebus_ and in _Galago_; the _carpus_ (or wrist) has no
central (_os centrale_) bone.
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