Chapter V: Coquerel's Dwarf-Lemur. Microcebus Coquereli

_Cheirogalus coquereli_, Grandid., Rev. Mag. de Zool., xix., 1867, p. 85.

_Microcebus coquereli_, Mivart, P. Z. S., 1867, pp. 966-967; Forsyth
Major, Nov. Zool., vol. i., p. 14 (1894; with full synonymy).

_Mirza coquerelii_, J. E. Gray, Cat. Monkeys, Brit. Mus. App., pp. 131,
135, 136 (1870); Schlegel, Mus. Pays Bas, vii., p. 321 (1876).

CHARACTERS.--Similar to _M. furcifer_, but slightly smaller; ears large, long, and almost naked; tail longer than the body; fur soft and woolly. Above dark grey, washed with rufous; tail, at base, of the same colour as the back; remainder of tail dark rufous; throat, breast, and under side of body yellowish-grey. {61}Length of body, 8½ inches; tail, 13 inches; skull high and arched; outer and hinder portion of ear-capsules (periotic-bones) and squamosal swollen; frontal bone longer than in _Opolemur_ and _Chirogale_; occiput less sloping from behind and above forwards and outwards. Upper median and posterior molars with one inner and two outer cusps, united by a curved ridge, cingulate all round, and with a small cusp or cingulum at the hind inner angle; posterior pre-molars smaller and shorter than the molars, with strong and vertically longer outer cusp, and a much more feeble inner cusp; posterior lower molar lengthened behind by a fifth cusp.

DISTRIBUTION.--Coquerel's Dwarf-Lemur, or the "Sisiba," as the natives call it, is found round Passandava Bay, near Mouroundava, on the south-west coast of Madagascar.

HABITS.--The Sisiba, like its congeners, is nocturnal and arboreal, constructing in the trees a nest of twigs. It feeds on fruits and leaves.

THE FAT-TAILED LEMURS. GENUS OPOLEMUR.

_Opolemur_, J. E. Gray, P. Z. S., 1872, p. 853.

The term _Opolemur_, by which this genus is designated, is not altogether appropriate, and is, indeed, even somewhat misleading. It was applied in the first instance to the typical species on account of the thickened base of its tail, which in the type-specimen was a very conspicuous character. The deposit of fat by which this thickening was caused was not then known to be merely transitory--a store of food collected at the base of the tail and on other parts of the body, to supply the needs of the animal during the arid and foodless season, when it retires into a state of torpidity. It is now known that {62}other species of this sub-family (as we have seen above in the case of the Mouse-Lemurs), which are generically distinct from _Opolemur_, share this peculiarity.

The two species included in this genus are intermediate between the Mouse-Lemurs and the Dwarf-Lemurs, and are really more nearly related to the former than to the latter. The skull is flat and depressed as in _Chirogale_, and the brain-case small and almost vertical behind. The posterior foramina in the palate are small. In respect to their dentition, the cusps of the upper molars are blunter and shorter than in the Mouse-Lemurs, but less so than among the Dwarf-Lemurs; the hind inner cusps of the anterior and median molars are large, and the ridge from the inner cusp is less intimately joined to the two outer cusps than in the Dwarf-Lemurs.

I. SAMAT'S FAT-TAILED LEMUR. OPOLEMUR SAMATI.

_Chirogalus samatii_, Grandid., Rev. et Mag. de Zool., xx., p. 49 (1868).

_Opolemur milii_, Gray, P. Z. S., 1872, pp. 853-4, pl. lxx., fig. i. (in
part).

_Opolemur samati_, Forsyth Major, Nov. Zool., vol. i., p. 18 (1894).

CHARACTERS.--Head, Cat-like; hair on body and tail very short, longer at tip of tail; tail very thick at base, from accumulation of fat, especially in the month of August. Length, 7½ inches; tail, 6½.

Fur above dark grey, washed with ferruginous, the tips of the hairs silvery-grey; tail faded rufous; a white spot on the forehead, becoming a line down the centre of the nose; a black circle round the eyes; ears slightly longer; tail shorter {63}and thicker proportionately than in _Chirogale milii_; under surface and inner side of limbs fulvous.

DISTRIBUTION.--This species, according to M. Grandidier, to whom all our knowledge of it is due, has been obtained on the River Tsidsibon, but is reported from other places on the west coast of Madagascar.