The Lemurs, using the popular term in its wide significance, can be
distinguished from the Monkeys and all other animals at a glance. Very
few travellers have the opportunity of observing them when wild,
and enjoying their liberty in their native woods, but every visitor
to the Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park may have the chance of
comparing some of them with other animals. This comparison may be made
readily at certain times, but not always, for only a few Lemurs care
to show themselves in broad daylight, and the rest come out of their
little nests in the evening. They are known by hairy “hands” at the
end of the arms and legs, large furry tails, slim furry bodies, long
ears, great staring eyes, and a muzzle like that of a small Fox. At
night-time, when the Baboons, Macaques, Guenons, and American Monkeys
are at rest and asleep, the Lemurs are awake, and rushing and jumping
here and there in their limited space; but during the day-time, when
the Monkey world is most giddy, with one or two exceptions the others
are quiet, and if poked out into daylight look dazed and stupid, and
are only too glad to get into darkness again. The exceptions to these
habits are not numerous. The Night-loving Monkey of South America comes
out to look about at the same time as its neighbour, the Night-loving
Lemur; and the Common, or Ring-tailed Lemur, is always ready to receive
food, or to be noticed in broad daylight, as it goes to bed with
monkeydom in general.
The other animals with which the Lemuroida may be confounded are
such as Squirrels, Weasels, Rats, Cats, and small Kangaroos. Some
Lemuroida have a slight resemblance, in general shape, to some of
these, and their habit of going about hopping on the hind legs tends
to the general likeness; moreover, in some there are front teeth
greatly resembling those of the gnawing, or Rodent animals, and in all
the back teeth are somewhat like those of insect-eating animals, or
_Insectivora_. But a little care will show that all these animals are
sufficiently distinct so as not to be classified with the Lemuroids
in the same group of the animal kingdom. The fact that the Lemuroids
have large thumb-like great toes, which enable the foot to be used as a
hand, is quite sufficient to distinguish them from animals with paws,
and all those mentioned above.
A curious mistake was made by confounding a Lemur with the Sloth (which
is never found out of South America, where also there are no Lemurs) in
the diary of a correspondent to one of the most important newspapers in
the world, and which was read with universal interest, and certainly
with great amusement, during the Ashantee War. He wrote:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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