Top of head grey, the base of the hairs Mouse-grey, with black or white tips; a triangular patch on the middle of the head, darker; band on the sides and middle of the nose dark brown, widening out on the forehead and over the eyes; a dark ring round the eyes, merging into the dark brown colour of the nose; front border of the ears, a patch behind the latter, the lips, chin, sides of cheek, and chest a creamy- or yellowish-white; throat grey; upper side of the body, outside of the limbs, and dorsal end of the tail, rufous-grey; back portion of { 79}the upper part of the thigh, the hinder part of the belly, and the greater part of the upper side of the tail yellowish-rufous; the upper side of hands dark brown, of the feet yellowish-grey; extremity of tail blackish-brown. Length of body, 12½ inches; tail, 13½ inches.
HABITS.--The habits of the Hattock, as the natives name this animal, are quite unknown.
_Hapalemur_, Is. Geoffr., Cat. Méth. Primates, p. 74 (1851).
This genus has been constituted for two species of a specialised type of Lemur, characterised by a globose head, a short muzzle, with a tapering nose and short hairy ears. The hind-limbs are longer than the fore-limbs, the feet short and broad, and the tail hairy and equal in length to the body. The female has four teats, two on the breast, or on the shoulder, and two on the abdomen.
In regard to their skeletal characters, the facial portion of the skull is short and narrow in front--the nasal bones being arched--and the brain-case rounded. The cranium presents no elevated frontal crests, as among the members of the next genus (_Lepidolemur_). The pre-maxillary bones are very small. The hind margin of the bony palate, which dilates posteriorly, does not extend behind the mid-line of the last molar. The squamosal region of the skull and the outer and posterior--the mastoidal--portion of the ear-capsules (periotic bones), is not inflated in the members of this genus. Their lower jaw is very characteristic, being massive in front and possessing a very long symphysis (or line of junction of its two halves), its angle being { 80}also very large, and produced downward, inward, and backward, even more than in the genus _Indris_. The _naviculare_ bone of the ankle (_tarsus_) is relatively short, thus differing from the same region in _Microcebus_ and in _Galago_; the _carpus_ (or wrist) has no central (_os centrale_) bone.