Part 5

The lemurs and their allied forms make up the remaining families of the quadrumana. These are three. The _Lemuridæ_, of which there are many species, most of which belong to Madagascar, others to Africa, Asia, and the Indian Archipelago; the _Tarsidæ_, which hail from Sumatra and Borneo; and the _Chiromyidæ_, of which the aye-aye is the representative. The _Lemuridæ_ are divided into four sub-families by Professor Mivart. I, the Indri; II, the true Lemurs; III, the slow Lemurs and IV, the Galagos. The lemur is nocturnal in its habits and noiseless in its movements. Some of its species much resemble the cat in appearance though its four hands unmistakably demonstrate its order. Sir William Jones describes a Slow Lemur (_Nycticebus tardigradus_), which he had in his possession, as "gentle except in the cold season, when his temper seemed wholly changed." This animal expressed great resentment when disturbed unseasonably. From half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset he slept without any intermission, rolled up like a hedgehog: and as soon as he awoke he began to prepare himself for the occupations of his approaching day, licking and dressing himself like a cat--an operation which the flexibility of his neck and limbs enabled him to perform very completely. He was then ready for a slight breakfast, after which he commonly took a short nap; but when the sun was quite set he recovered all his vivacity. "Generally he was not voracious, but of grasshoppers he never could have enough; and passed the whole night during the hot season in prowling for them. He used all his paws indifferently as hands." Mrs. Bowdich tells of one of these animals, procured by Mr. Baird at Prince of Wales Island, who shared a cage with a dog to whom he became greatly attached, while nothing could reconcile him to a cat, which constantly jumped over his back, causing him great annoyance.

The Tarsier.

The tarsier (_Tarsius spectrum_) is a small, kitten-faced animal with long hind legs, which enable it to leap like a frog. It is nocturnal in habit, and is found in Sumatra, Borneo, and elsewhere.

The Aye-Aye.

The aye-aye (_Chiromys madagascariensis_) is a remarkable little animal resembling, as Professor Owen says, in size and shape the domestic cat, its head and ears being larger, and its hind legs and tail longer than those of the cat. Dr. Sandwich, writing of one he had in his possession, says:--"The thick sticks I put into his cage were bored in all directions by a large and destructive grub, called the _montouk_. Just at sunset the aye-aye crept from under his blanket, yawned, stretched and betook himself to his tree. Presently he came to one of the worm-eaten branches, which he began to examine most attentively, and bending forward his ears, and applying his nose close to the bark, he rapidly tapped the surface with the curious second digit, as a woodpecker taps a tree, though with much less noise, from time to time inserting the end of the slender finger into the worm-holes as a surgeon would a probe. At length he came to a part of the branch which evidently gave out an interesting sound, for he began to tear it with his strong teeth. He rapidly stripped off the bark, cut into the wood, and exposed the nest of a grub which he daintily picked out of its bed, with the slender, tapping finger, and conveyed the luscious morsel to his mouth. But I was yet to learn another peculiarity. I gave him water to drink in a saucer, on which he stretched out his hand, dipped a finger into it and drew it obliquely through his open mouth. After a while he lapped like a cat, but his first mode of drinking appeared to me to be his way of reaching water in the deep clefts of trees."

ORDER II.

Wing-Handed Animals.

The animals which most nearly resemble the four-handed animals or quadrumana are the wing-handed animals,--the bats or _Cheiroptera_. These are of singular appearance and interesting habit. "If," says the Rev. J. G. Wood, "the fingers of a man were to be drawn out like wire to about four feet in length, a thin membrane to extend from finger to finger, and another membrane to fall from the little finger to the ankles, he would make a very tolerable imitation of a bat."--Of course, it should be added, making allowance for proportion, the full grown male bat, of the largest species, rarely exceeding twelve inches in height from head to foot. Bats' wings are highly nervous and sensitive, so much so as to render their owners almost independent of sight. Besides being "well adapted for flight," says Dr. Percival Wright, "they are still capable in a small measure of seizing, differing thus from the anterior limbs of Birds."

Bats.

Dr. Dobson divides the order _Cheiroptera_ into two sub-orders: I, The Great Bats and II, The Smaller Bats. Of these there are numerous genera and a large number of species. THE GREAT BATS abound in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the East, where they live on fruit, and from this circumstance are classified as "fruit-eating bats," though they are sometimes called "flying-foxes." The largest of these inhabit Sumatra and Java, living in large companies, sleeping by day and foraging by night. A large tree serves them for a sleeping-chamber, where, suspending themselves head downwards from the branches, they wrap their wings about them in lieu of blankets and sleep out the sunshine. After sunset they gradually awake and proceed to ravage any fruit preserves which may be within reach, committing serious depredations while the owners outsleep the moon. According to Mr. Francis Day, "they do very great injury to cocoa-nut plantations and mangoe gardens." "Their habits," says Mr. Day, "are very intemperate, and they often pass the night drinking the toddy from the chatties in the cocoa-nut trees, which results either in their returning home in the early morning in a state of extreme and riotous intoxication, or in being found the next day at the foot of the trees, sleeping off the effects of their midnight debauch." THE SMALLER BATS include several families, numerous genera, and a large number of species to be found in almost all parts of the world. These bats are chiefly insect-eaters, though included among them are the vampire bats and the Megaderma lyra which have the reputation of being cannibalistic. The various families are "The Horseshoe Bats," "The Nycteridæ," "The Vespertilionidæ," "The Emballonuridæ," and "The Phyllostomidæ.

The Common English Bats.

The common English bats belong to the Vespertilionidæ. The Pipistrelle feeds upon insects but will eat flesh if opportunity serves. In his "Natural History of Selbourne," Mr. White describes a tame bat which he saw, which would take flies out of a person's hand. "If you gave it anything to eat," he says, "it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected, pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered; so that the notion that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon seems no improbable story." The Long-eared Bat, _Plecotus auritus_, is also common in England. "Its ears," says Mr. Wood, "are about an inch and a half in length and have a fold in them reaching almost to the lips," hence its name. "It is very easily tamed."

The Vampire Bat.

The Vampire Bat which belongs to South America has been invested with a halo of romance by the stories which have been told about its sanguinary character. "It lives," says the Rev. J. G. Wood, "on the blood of animals, and sucks usually while its victim sleeps. The extremities, where the blood flows freely, as the toe of a man, the ears of a horse, or the combs and wattles of fowls, are its favourite spots. When it has selected a subject, on which it intends to feed, it watches until the animal is fairly asleep. It then carefully fans its victim with its wings while it bites a little hole in the ear or shoulder, and through this small aperture, into which a pin's head would scarcely pass, it contrives to abstract sufficient blood to make a very ample meal. The wound is so small, and the bat manages so adroitly, that the victim does not discover that anything has happened until the morning, when a pool of blood betrays the visit of the vampire. "The Vampire Bat," says Professor Darwin, "is often the cause of much trouble by biting the horses on their withers. The injury is not so much owing to the loss of blood, as to the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle afterwards produces. The whole circumstance has lately been doubted in England. I was therefore fortunate in being present when one was actually caught on a horse's back. We were bivouacking late one evening, near Coquimbo, in Chili, when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could distinguish something, suddenly put his hand on the beast's withers, and secured the vampire. In the morning the spot where the bite had been inflicted was easily distinguished by its being slightly swollen and bloody. The third day afterwards we rode the horse without any ill effects."

A Traveller's Experience.

Captain Steadman, in his "Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam," relates, that on waking about four o'clock one morning in his hammock, he was extremely alarmed at finding himself weltering in congealed blood, and without feeling any pain whatever. "The mystery was," continues Captain Steadman, "that I had been bitten by the _Vampyre_ or _Spectre_ of Guiana, which is also called the _Flying Dog_ of New Spain, and by the Spaniards, _Perrovolador_. This is no other than a bat of monstrous size, that sucks the blood from men and cattle while they are fast asleep, even sometimes till they die; and as the manner in which they proceed is truly wonderful, I shall endeavour to give a distinct account of it. Knowing, by instinct, that the person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet, where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently not painful; yet through this orifice he continues to suck the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. Cattle they generally bite in the ear, but always in places where the blood flows spontaneously."

Megaderma Lyra.

The Vampire Bat of South America has long been credited with sanguinivorous habits, and until recently was supposed to be the only bat having such propensities. Mr. Edward Blyth has, however, shown that the Megaderma Lyra of Asia will sometimes prey upon the smaller species of bat with which it comes in contact. Mr. Blyth, one evening, observed a rather large bat of this species enter an outhouse, whereupon he procured a light, closed the door to prevent escape and then proceeded to catch the intruder. In the chase the bat dropped what Mr. Blyth at first took to be a young one, but which proved to be a small Vespertilio Bat, "feeble from loss of blood, which it was evident the Megaderma had been sucking from a large, and still bleeding, wound under and behind the ear." As the Megaderma had not alighted while in the outhouse, Mr. Blyth concluded "that it sucked the vital current from its victim as it flew, having probably seized it on the wing, and that it was seeking a quiet nook where it might devour the body at leisure." Having caught the Megaderma Mr. Blyth kept both specimens until the next day, and having examined each separately put them both into a cage, whereupon the Megaderma attacked the smaller bat "with the ferocity of a tiger"; finding it impossible to escape the cage "it hung by the hind legs to one side of its prison, and after sucking the victim till no more blood was left commenced devouring it, and soon left nothing but the head and some portions of the limbs." "The voidings observed shortly afterwards in its cage," says Mr. Blyth, "resembled clotted blood, which will explain the statement of Steadman and others concerning masses of congealed blood being observed near a patient who has been attacked by a South American vampire."

ORDER III.

Insect-Eating Animals.

Insect-eating animals (_Insectivora_) include several families, of which the hedgehogs, the moles and the shrews, are the best known genera. The Colugo is perhaps the most singular member of the order. According to some writers his proper place is among the lemurs, and except that his feet are adorned with claws instead of nails, it is easy to understand why he might be classed with the quadrumana. The Colugo is covered from head to foot by a furry membrane, resembling an overcoat open in front and ending in a three cornered flap at the tail.

The Hedgehog.

The family of the hedgehog contains two genera and a number of species. Its length is from six to ten inches; the head, back, and sides being covered with short spines, the under parts with soft hair. It lives in thickets, and subsists on fruits, roots, and insects. During the winter, it lies imbedded in moss, or dried leaves, in a state of torpidity. It inhabits Europe, Asia and Africa. It is valuable in the garden for destroying the insects, and in the kitchen for the extermination of cockroaches, beetles and other household pests. For defence, it rolls itself into a ball in such a manner as to present its prickly spines on all sides. In this condition it can suffer considerable violence without injury. Mr. Bell mentions a hedgehog that was in the habit of running to the edge of an area wall twelve or fourteen feet high, and without a moment's pause, leap over, contracting into a ball as he fell, and in this form reaching the ground, where it quietly unfolded itself as if nothing had happened and ran on its way. It is nocturnal in its habits and in its natural state lives in pairs. It is easily tamed. A hedgehog has been trained to serve as a turnspit "as well," says Captain Brown, "in all respects as the dog of that denomination. In a wild state it has been known to attack and kill a leveret. In attacking a snake it will roll itself up between its bites and thus protect itself against retaliation.

The Mole.

The family of the Talpidæ to which the mole belongs is a large and interesting one. The common mole "when at rest," says the author of "Tales of Animals," "bears more resemblance to a small stuffed sack than to a living animal, its head being entirely destitute of external ears, and elongated nearly to a point, and its eyes so extremely small and completely hidden by the fur, that it would not be surprising should a casual observer conclude it to be blind. This apparently shapeless mass is endowed with great activity and a surprising degree of strength, and is excellently suited for deriving enjoyment from the peculiar life it is designed to lead. It is found abundantly in Europe and North America, from Canada to Virginia; often living at no great distance from water-courses, or in dykes thrown up to protect meadows from inundation. The mole burrows with great quickness, and travels under ground with much celerity; nothing can be better constructed for this purpose than its broad and strong hands, or fore paws, armed with long and powerful claws, which are very sharp at their extremities, and slightly curved on the inside. Numerous galleries, communicating with each other, enable the mole to travel in various directions, without coming to the surface, which they appear to do very rarely, unless their progress is impeded by a piece of ground so hard as to defy their strength and perseverance. The depth of their burrows depends very materially on the character of the soil, and the situation of the place; sometimes running for a great distance, at a depth of from one to three inches, and sometimes much deeper. Moles are most active early in the morning, at midday, and in the evening; after rains they are particularly busy in repairing their damaged galleries; and in long continued wet weather we find that they seek the high grounds for security."

An Enterprising Mole.

Though as Captain Brown points out nothing is more fatal to the mole than excessive rain, which fills their subterranean galleries with water; the following statement made by Mr. A. Bruce in the Linnæan Transactions, shows that the animal is not without enterprise on the water:--"On visiting the Loch of Clunie, which I often did, I observed in it a small island at the distance of one hundred and eighty yards from the nearest land, measured to be so upon the ice. Upon the island, the Earl of Airly, the proprietor, has a castle and small shrubbery. I remarked frequently the appearance of fresh mole casts, or hills. I for some time took them for those of the water mouse, and one day asked the gardener if it was so. No, said he, it was the mole; and that he had caught one or two lately. Five or six years ago, he caught two in traps; and for two years after this he had observed none. But, about four years ago, coming ashore one summer's evening in the dusk, with the Earl of Airly's butler, they saw at a short distance, upon the smooth water, some animal paddling towards the island. They soon closed with this feeble passenger, and found it to be the common mole, led by a most astonishing instinct from the castle hill, the nearest point of land, to take possession of this desert island. It had been, at the time of my visit, for the space of two years quite free from any subterraneous inhabitant; but the mole has, for more than a year past, made its appearance again, and its operations I have since been witness to."

The Use of the Mole.

The use of the mole is often said to be far outweighed by the mischief he perpetrates, the truth appearing to be that like many other animals, in his own place he is valuable, out of it he is a source of danger. Both conditions are illustrated by the following, which I quote from Mrs. Bowdich's "Anecdotes of Animals."

"A French naturalist of the name of Henri Lecourt devoted a great part of his life to the study of the habits and structure of moles; and he tells us that they will run as fast as a horse will gallop. By his observations he rendered essential service to a large district in France; for he discovered that numbers of moles had undermined the banks of a canal, and that unless means were taken to prevent the catastrophe, these banks would give way, and inundation would ensue. By his ingenious contrivances and accurate knowledge of their habits, he contrived to extirpate them before the occurrence of further mischief. Moles, however, are said to be excellent drainers of land; and Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, used to declare that if a hundred men and horses were employed to dress a pasture farm of 1500 or 2000 acres, they would not do it as effectually as moles would do, if left to themselves."

The Shrew.

The shrew family is a large one and widely distributed over the surface of the earth. The common shrew (_Sorex vulgaris_) is that best known in England. It resembles the mouse in general form and varies in size and colour, its usual length, including the tail being about four and a half inches. Its body is moderately full, its neck short, its head tapering to a pointed snout, the fore-feet small, the hind-feet larger and the tail shorter than the body. The shrew is generally found either in burrows, or among heaps of stones, or in holes made by other animals; near dung heaps or hayricks, they are more numerous than elsewhere. Insects are their principal subsistence, but they seem no less fond of grain, and show a pig's predilection for filth of various sorts. Its principal enemies are the Kestrel and the Barn Owl. A superstition to the effect that if the shrew should run over the legs of a cow or a horse while reposing on the grass it causes lameness, is also responsible for the destruction of many by ignorant country folk. One species of the shrew enjoys the reputation of being the smallest living mammal; it is but an inch and a half long with a tail of an inch in length. The water shrew is somewhat larger than the common shrew attaining to a length of five and a half inches including the tail. The water shrew colonises on the banks of rivers.

ORDER IV.

Flesh-eating Animals.

The order of flesh-eating animals (_carnivora_) includes a large number of species among which are the lion, the tiger and the leopard, as well as the cat and the dog. The two sub-orders into which this order is divided are: I, The Fissipedia, and II, The Pinnipedia. The Fissipedia are again divided into ten families; lions, cats, dogs, hyenas, weasels, and bears being the most important members. The Pinnipedia includes the seal, the sea lion, the walrus and their allies.

SUB-ORDER I.

The Fissipedia. Animals of the Cat Kind.

Animals of the cat kind are distinguished by their sharp and formidable claws, which they can hide or extend at pleasure. They are remarkable for their rapacity, subsisting entirely on the flesh and blood of other animals. The dog, wolf, and bear, are sometimes known to live on vegetables, or farinaceous food; but the lion, the tiger, the leopard, and other animals of this class, devour nothing but flesh, and would starve upon any other provision. They lead a solitary, ravenous life, uniting neither for mutual defence, like vegetable feeders, nor for mutual support, like those of the dog kind. The first of the class is the lion, distinguished from all the rest by his strength, his magnitude, and his mane. The second is the tiger, rather longer than the lion, but not so tall, and known by the streaks and vivid beauty of its skin; here we may also mention the puma, which is sometimes called a panther, or colloquially a "painter", otherwise a couguar, or American lion, which is of a tawny colour. The next is the leopard, sometimes called a panther, and the next the jaguar, followed by the ounce, not so large as any of the former, spotted like them, but distinguished by the cream-coloured ground of its hair, and a tail so long as to exceed the length of its body. The next is the catamountain, or tiger-cat, less than the ounce, but differing particularly in having a shorter tail, and being streaked down the back like a tiger. The next is the lynx, of the size of a fox, with its body streaked, and the tips of its ears tufted with black. Then comes the Persian lynx, not so large as the lynx, nor mottled like it, but with longer ears, tipped also with black, and the serval, shaped and streaked like the lynx, but not having the tips of its ears tufted. Lastly, the cat, wild and tame, with all its varieties; less than any of the former, but like them insidious, rapacious, and cruel.

The Lion.

The lion is known as the King of Beasts; though modern travellers have done much to rob him of the homage that he once received. Like a human being who has been too much lionized, he suffers from the detractions which are excited by his pre-eminence. He is found chiefly in India and Africa, though he once had a more extended range. He was well known to the Greeks, and appears in both their poetry and history. Homer celebrates him, and according to Herodotus he exploited himself by attacking the camels of the army of Xerxes. His noble appearance is said to be responsible for the popular ideal of his character, which travellers and naturalists declare to be minus the magnanimous and generous qualities with which it was at one time credited.

The Lion's Character.