Chapter I: Small Dwarf-Lemur. Microcebus Minor

_Microcebus murinus_, Martin, P. Z. S., 1835, pp. 125.

_Galago minor_, Gray, Ann. and Mag. N. H., x., p. 255 (1842).

_? Chirogalus gliroides_, Grandid., C. R., 14 Dec., 1868.

_Chirogaleus pusillus_, Flower and Lydekker, Mammalia, p. 690 (1891
partim).

_Microcebus minor_, Forsyth Major, Nov. Zool., vol. i., p. 8 (1894), Taf.
i., fig. 2; ii., figs. 5-7, 14, 15 (with full synonymy).

CHARACTERS.--Head rounded; muzzle short and pointed; eyes large and brilliant; ears large and naked; tail longer than body. Length of body, 5 inches; of tail, 6 inches.

Upper side, either for the most part Mouse-grey, washed with light rufous-brown, with the stripe down the back more or less distinct and somewhat darker; or with the rufous-brown colour preponderating. In grey specimens the upper side of the tail is washed with rufous, the under side being somewhat lighter. Cheeks, throat, breast, belly, and inner side of limbs almost pure white, here and there washed with grey. Between the eyes a white stripe; over the eyes in grey specimens a rusty-brown spot. Base of the hairs slate-grey; the tips silvery. (_Forsyth Major._) Skull variable; the brain-case short and high, or long and depressed; the facial region short; posterior {56}upper pre-molar less than the anterior molar. Length of intestine, 20 inches; cæcum blunt, 1¾ inches long; main arteries of fore- and hind-limbs not broken up into a _rete mirabile_ of small parallel vessels.

DISTRIBUTION.--This beautiful little animal, sometimes called the "Rat" of Madagascar, the smallest of all the Lemurs, is known from Ambulisatra on the south-west coast of Madagascar, and from Fort Dauphin on the south-east coast.