[Illustration: SMITH'S DWARF-LEMUR.]
{59}HABITS.--Of the habits of both this and of the preceding species little
is known, for they have rarely, if ever, been seen alive by Europeans.
According to the Rev. G. A. Shaw, the present species lives in the belt of
forest-land stretching from the eastern forest into the heart of Betsileo,
a few miles north of Fianarantsoa, where they are tolerably abundant,
frequenting the tops of the highest trees. Among these it moves about on
all fours (its very stout limbs having beautifully perfect hands), using
its tail as a balance by twisting it round a branch. The tail is, however,
not truly prehensile, the animal only employing it to steady itself, or to
hold on slightly by. This species, whose food consists chiefly of fruit and
insects, builds a nest in a fork amid the smallest branches near the top of
some very high tree, the female bringing forth two and sometimes three
young at a birth.