Part 8

HABITS.--Both species of Potto are nocturnal and arboreal, and are exceedingly slow in their movements. In catching {30}insects or flies, which form part of their food, they proceed with extraordinary deliberation, never quickening their movements, and yet rarely, if ever, missing their prey.

Bosman in his description of the Gold Coast of Guinea, gives a woodcut of the Potto, which, he says, is a "Draught of a Creature, by the Negroes called Potto, but known to us by the Name of Sluggard, doubtless from its lazy, sluggish Nature; a whole day being little enough for it to advance ten Steps forward.

"Some Writers affirm, that when this Creature has climbed upon a Tree, he doth not leave it until he hath eaten up not only the Fruit, but the leaves intirely; and then descends fat and in very good case in order to get up into another Tree; but before his slow pace can compass this, he becomes as poor and lean as 'tis possible to imagine: And if the trees be high, or the way anything distant, and he meets with nothing on his journey, he inevitably dies of Hunger, betwixt one tree and the other. Thus 'tis represented by others, but I will not undertake for the Truth of it; though the Negroes are apt to believe something like it.

"This is such a horrible ugly Creature that I don't believe anything besides so very disagreeable is to be found on the whole Earth; the Print is a very lively Description of it: Its Fore-feet are very like Hands, the Head strangely disproportionately large; that from whence this Print was taken was of a pale Mouse colour: but it was then very young, and his Skin yet smooth, but when old, as I saw one at Elmina in the year 1699, 'tis red and covered with a sort of Hair as thick set as Flocks of Wool. I know nothing more of this Animal, than that 'tis impossible to look on him without Horrour, and that he hath nothing very particular but his odious Ugliness."

{31}THE SLENDER LORIS. GENUS LORIS.

Loris, Geoffr., Mag. Encycl., Ann. 2, i., p. 48 (1796).

Stenops, Illiger, Prodr., p. 73 (1811).

As this genus contains only a solitary species, its characters are necessarily those of the species.

I. THE SLENDER LORIS. LORIS GRACILIS.

Loris gracilis, Geoffr., Magas. Encycl. Ann. 4, i., p. 48 (1796); id. Catal., p. 37, no. 1 (1803); id. Ann. Mus., xix., p. 163 (1812); Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 79 (1851); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. As. Soc., p. 19 (1863); Anderson, Cat. Mamm. Ind. Mus., p. 97 (1881); Blanf., Faun. Brit. Ind. Mamm., p. 47 (1888).

Nycticebus gracilis, Fischer, Syn. Mamm., p. 70 (1829); Schl., Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 284 (1876).

Stenops tardigradus, Illiger, Prodr. Syst. Mamm., p. 73 (1811, pt.).

Stenops gracilis, Van der Hoeven, Tijdschr., Nat. Ges., xi., p. 39 (1844); Kelaart, Prod. Fauna Zeyl., p. 9 (1852).

CHARACTERS.--A slender-bodied animal covered with close, soft, and woolly fur. Head short and round; eyes very large; nose narrow and much pointed; ears small and haired externally; tips nude. Limbs long, remarkably slender and angularly bent; hands and feet covered with short hair; index-finger with three phalanges and finger-bones.

Skull with eye-sockets closely approximating, in the centre separated only by a thin plate of bone; nasal and premaxillary bones prolonged forward to support the narrow pointed nose; cranium, along its base to end of nasal bones, two inches long, broader across the orbits than behind in front of the articulation of lower jaw; bony palate extending back beyond the {32}posterior molar tooth. In the upper jaw the incisors are small and equal (Fig. 6); posterior pre-molar similar to, but smaller than the anterior molar; anterior molar with the oblique ridge on crown well developed; crown of posterior molar four-cusped, that of the posterior lower molar five-cusped. Dorsal and lumbar vertebræ together, 23; caudal vertebræ, 6-8.

The alimentary canal is four times the length of the body.

ADULT.--Dingy grey above, darker on back, paler on lower back; the hairs tipped with white. Sides of body, outside of fore- and hind-limbs dingy white, with a faint rufous wash on the outside of the hind-limbs. Face and ring round eyes dark greyish-brown; streak along nose white, branching on forehead above the eyes on each side into a broad ring encircling the dark ocular ring; this frontal branch sometimes absent. Under side greyish-white. Hairs of fur greyish-white at base, dark in the middle, and tipped with white. Length, 8 inches.

YOUNG.--More rust-coloured than the adult.

DISTRIBUTION.--The Slender Loris is common in the lower forests of Ceylon and of Southern India, south of the Godaveri river, as well as in those of the Eastern Ghats.

HABITS.--This curious, emaciated-looking, little creature is nocturnal, living entirely in trees. It sleeps during the day rolled up in a ball, with its head between its legs, grasping its perch with its hands. According to Jerdon these animals are occasionally brought in large numbers to the Madras market, their eyes being a favourite remedy of the Tamil doctors for ophthalmic diseases.

In its movements it is slightly more active than the Slow-Loris. Its food consists of succulent leaves, honey, insects, birds' eggs, and small animals.

PLATE III.

{33}THE SLOW-LORIS. GENUS NYCTICEBUS.

Nycticebus, Geoffr., Ann. du Mus., xix., p. 162 (1812).

Stenops (nec Illiger), Van der Hoeven, Tijdsch. Nat. Ges., xi., p. 39 (1844).

Bradycebus, Cuv. et Geoffr., Mém. Class. Mamm. (1795).

This genus, like the last, is represented by a single species, and its characters, therefore, are detailed below.

I. THE JAVAN SLOW-LORIS. NYCTICEBUS TARDIGRADUS.