Monograph on the Aye-Aye (Chiromys madagascariensis, Cuvier).

  • Owen, Richard, 1804-1892.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Monograph on the Aye-Aye (Chiromys madagascariensis, Cuvier). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    15/110 (page 9)
    living Aye-aye to England, it might be more advantageous to science if the animal were killed by chloroform, its arterial system injected, the cranial cavity exposed, the abdo- minal cavity and alimentary canal injected with alcohol, and the whole animal then immersed in a keg of colourless spirit. Before my reply reached Dr. Sandwith, the Aye-aye had escaped. It was, however, recaptured on a neighbouring sugar-plantation in the Mauritius. Accordingly, on the receipt of the above instructions, Dr. Sandwith at once proceeded to fulfil them ; and the result was the reception, at the British Museum, of our now unique example of the Chiromys maclagascariensis, in the excellent state of preservation which has admitted of the following description being taken from it. Before, however, entering upon this, I may remark that other testimony than my correspondent’s had been given of the accuracy of Sonnerat’s original statement of the office of the slender middle digit of the fore paw. M. Lienard, of the island of Mauritius, communicated, in 1855, to the French Academy of Sciences1 some of his observations on a young male Aye-aye, which was brought from Madagascar, and lived some weeks in captivity. When a mango-fruit was offered, the Aye-aye first made a hole in the rind with his strong fore teeth, inserted therein his slender middle digit, and then, lowering his mouth to the hole, put into it the pulp which the finger had scooped out of the fruit. When one hand was tired, he used the other, and often changed them. On presenting him with a piece of sugar-cane, he held it by both hands, and, tearing it open with his teeth, sucked out the juice. A third observer,. M A. Vinson, affirms, in reference to an Aye-aye brought from Madagascar to the lie de la Reunion in 1855, where it lived about two months in captivity, that it selected the larvae it liked best by the sense of smell; and that, when “cafe au lait ” or “ eau sucree” was offered, it drank by passing its long and slender digit from the vessel to its mouth with incredible rapidity2. § 2. External Characters. The male Aye-aye, transmitted to me in spirits by the Hon. Dr. Sandwith, is repre- sented of the natural size in Plates I. & VI., and of half the natural size in Plates III., IV., & V. The full-grown female Aye-aye is figured, of half the natural size, in Plate II., 1 Comptes Rendus, Septembre 3me, 1855. 2 “ II ne voulait pas des larves de tous les arbres indistinctement; il les reconnaissait en les flairant. II etait tres-friand de cafe au lait, d’eau sucree, qu’il buvait a l’aide de ce long doigt qu’il passait et repassait incessam- ment du vase a la bouche avec une incroyable agilite” (Comptes Rendus de l’Acad. des Sciences, Oct. 1855, tom. xli. p. G40). [In the female Aye-aye, now living in the Gardens of the Zoological Society (August 1862), Mr. Bartlett informs me that, “ in feeding, the fourth, which is the longest and largest finger, is thrust forward into the food, while the slender middle finger is raised above the others, and the first and second fingers are lowered: in this position the hand is drawn rapidly backward and forward, the side of the fourth finger passing between the tips of the animal’s mouth as the head is somewhat turned sideways ; and in this manner the food is deposited in the mouth.”]