Lemur Albifrons. Geoff.

Belonging to a different tribe of the same grand division with the true Monkeys, from which they are more readily distinguished¹ by their general form and habit than by any very remarkable² deviation³ in their structure or organization, these agile⁴ and playful little creatures form a group which naturally follows in immediate⁵ succession. The technical peculiarities⁶ on which their separation from the Monkeys is founded are usually deduced from their teeth and nails; but other and more obvious characteristics are afforded by the form of their heads, of their tails, and of their hinder extremities⁷, and these assist in confirming a distinction which might[152] otherwise be regarded as arbitrary and unnecessary. The teeth of the Lemurs are, like those of man and of the Monkeys of the Old World, thirty-two in number, and consist of four incisors, two canines⁸, and ten molars in the upper jaw⁹, and of six incisors, two canines, and eight molars in the lower. Such at least is the usual statement with respect to their dentition; but M. Geoffroy maintains, on the other hand, that the number of incisors is equal in both jaws¹⁰, and coincides with that of the Monkeys; the two outermost¹¹ of the six, which are larger than the rest, being in his opinion the true canines; while the canines, commonly so called, are in fact only the first of the series of molars. This

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