_Opolemur thomasi_, Forsyth Major, Nov. Zool., vol. i., p. 20, Taf. i.,
fig. 1 Taf., ii., figs. 2 and 11 (1894).
CHARACTERS.--Nearly allied to _O. samati_. Head broad, flat; snout short;
ears short. Above grey, with a wash of rusty brown, the tips of the hair
glistening silvery-grey; top of head somewhat darker; under side of tail
lighter; a white band between the eyes extending down to the nose-pad,
which is naked; round the neck a white ring broken by a grey spot; ring
round the eyes, and hair of ears, brownish-black; cheeks, lips, chin,
throat, breast, belly, inner side of limbs, upper side of hands and feet,
yellowish-white, and inclining to greyish-white, where it merges into the
upper side. Length, 9¼ inches; tail, 8 inches.
Skull depressed; brain-case flat and short; facial portion blunt;
inter-parietal bone broad and short. Posterior upper pre-molar broader than
the median, and broader than the same tooth in _O. samati_, the median
pre-molar lacking the inner cusp. Nasal bones sharply keeled in the
mid-line.
DISTRIBUTION.--Of this species only the three specimens, in the British
Museum, are yet known. They were obtained near Fort Dauphin, on the
south-east coast of Madagascar.
HABITS.--Nothing is known of the habits of either of these two species of
_Opolemur_.
{64}THE TRUE LEMURS. SUB-FAMILY III. LEMURINÆ.
The third sub-family of the _Lemuridæ_ contains the True Lemurs, which are
characterised by the possession of a soft, thick, and woolly fur, the head
rounded behind, with a specially elongated muzzle. They have small and oval
ears, with the exterior aspect covered with long hair, but the inside
naked, except round the margin. Their hind-limbs do not show so great a
disproportionate length compared to that of the fore-limbs, as in the next
sub-family, the _Indrisinæ_. The ankle-bones (_tarsus_) are only slightly
elongated, and their toes are not united by a membrane. Their long and
bushy tail is sometimes longer and sometimes shorter than the body. The
females produce one or two, nearly naked, young at a birth, the mammæ being
either two or four in number. The skull presents a central ridge on the
frontal bone, and its facial portion is much elongated, the inter-orbital
space being depressed and wider, and the orbits also directed somewhat
outward and less straightforwardly than in several of the genera already
noticed. The maxillary bones are generally much reduced, and the incisor
teeth carried by them not unfrequently entirely aborted. The teeth in this
Sub-family vary in number from 32 to 36, the dental formula being I(0-2)/2,
C1/1, P3/3, M3/3. The foot is slightly elongated by the lengthening of the
_naviculare_ bone of the ankle, the others being short. In the wrist
(_carpus_) the central bone (_centrale_) may be present or absent; its
absence, however, is a character which is met with otherwise only in Man,
the Chimpanzees, and the Endrina and some other Lemurs, to be described
later on. The cæcum is not markedly developed.
{65}The external coloration of the species of this Sub-family is remarkably
variable, the variation being chiefly in the upper portion of the hairs, as
their base is generally slate-grey.
The sub-family _Lemurinæ_ embraces four genera: the True Lemurs (_Lemur_),
of which there are now eight recognised species; the Hattock (_Mixocebus_),
with a solitary species; the Gentle-Lemurs (_Hapalemur_), containing two
species, and the Sportive-Lemurs (_Lepidolemur_), with seven species. Some
of the most elegantly coloured species in the Animal Kingdom belong to this
group. They are gregarious, and most of them arboreal, though some are not
so. They form rather an exception to the general rule among Lemurs, in not
being nocturnal. They feed during the morning and evening, emitting loud
cries as they move about, and during the heat of the day, they often lie
stretched out in the sun; at night they rest with their long tails coiled
about them. In their mode of progression they are more quadrupedal than
most of the other Lemuroids; they jump, walk, or run on all fours. Their
food consists of fruits, birds' eggs, birds and insects. Their infants are
carried about close to, and concealed amid, the hair of their mother's
breast; when older they cling to her back.
The True Lemurs are all inhabitants of Madagascar and of the adjacent
Comoro Islands. They are unknown on the African continent.