. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 242 NATURAL HISTORY. finger. Tiie back or rib vei-tebrte are fourteen or more, and the loin-bones are never less than seven. There is a remarkable division of the blood-vessels of the arms, loins, and legs called the rete mirabile. The vessels split into minute tubes, like hairs in calibre, biit of two sizes, and lie closely adherent to each other in long parallel lines (see page 245) ; tiiis arrangement, also termed a plexus, or plexiform, being similar in kind to what is met with in the Sloth tribe of South America. The Slow Lemurs inhab
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. 242 NATURAL HISTORY. finger. Tiie back or rib vei-tebrte are fourteen or more, and the loin-bones are never less than seven. There is a remarkable division of the blood-vessels of the arms, loins, and legs called the rete mirabile. The vessels split into minute tubes, like hairs in calibre, biit of two sizes, and lie closely adherent to each other in long parallel lines (see page 245) ; tiiis arrangement, also termed a plexus, or plexiform, being similar in kind to what is met with in the Sloth tribe of South America. The Slow Lemurs inhabit both Africa and Asia, but are not found in Madagascar, and their mode of life is strictly arboreal and nocturnal. The first African genus is VAN BOSMAN'S POTTO.* As far back as the year 1705, while on a voyage to the Guinea coast, the Dutch navigator, Van Bosman, came across a new and strange little quadruped which, on his return, he figured and briefly described under the name of Potto. The colonists knew it as the Bush-dog, and that it was slothful and retu-ing, seldom making its appearance except in the night-time, and then- to feed on the cassada and other vegetables. It is remarkable for its singular hand, which has, as it were, a defoiined fore- finger, and for a seeming protrusion of the neck-bones. Like other tropical night-animals, the home or wild habits of the Potto have only been loosely studied. It is not restricted to the northern parts of Guinea, but is found on "the Gold Coast and at th3 Gaboon River under the Equator. It shows a certain agility at night, clambering up the most smooth and polished branches with ease. "V\Tien caught, and in captivity, one authority says, it sjjed along the cornices and angles within the house wherever there was the least elevation from the wall. Those specimens which have lived in the Regent's Park Gardens from time to time ha,ve fed or>. Perodictkus Please note that these images are extracte
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