"is not a happy one, for it is continually seeing ghosts; and that is why it hides its face in its hands!"
The genus Perodicticus contains two quite recognisable species, known respectively as the Angwantibo and Bosman's Potto. The former has been regarded as referable to a distinct genus, Arctocebus. A curious internal character of the Potto which is visible, or at least can be felt, externally, is the long neural processes of the cervical vertebrae, which project beyond the level of the skin. The index finger is rudimentary and so is the tail, being only just visible (about an inch in length) in the Potto. The colour of both genera is a reddish grey, redder in the Potto. The incisors are equal and minute. Both species are confined in their range to West Africa, and are arboreal like the other members of the sub-family. The Potto seems to share the leisurely mode of progression of its Asiatic relatives, if Bosman, its original describer, is to be trusted. He says: "By the negroes called Potto, but known to us by the name of Sluggard, doubtless from its lazy, sluggish nature; a whole day being little enough for it to advance ten steps forward." The same writer did not at all appreciate his addition to zoological knowledge, for he remarked that the Potto "hath nothing very particular but his odious ugliness." The Angwantibo is rare and but little known. Our knowledge of its anatomy is derived from a paper by Huxley.[1] It is an animal measuring about 10½ inches in total length to the end of the tail, which is only a quarter of an inch long. The hands and feet are smaller than those of Perodicticus. The index finger is rudimentary and has but two phalanges, and it has no trace of a nail. In this it agrees with the Potto, but "the spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae do not project in the manner described by van der Hoeven in the Potto, though they can be readily felt through the skin." The dental formula of this genus as of the last is I 2/2 C 1/1 Pm 3/3 M 3/3. The last lower molar has a fifth cusp, which is wanting in the Potto. The last upper molar is tricuspid. It is bicuspid in the Potto. It seems impossible to avoid agreeing with Professor Huxley that the Angwantibo is entitled to generic separation.
The genus Loris also contains but a single species, L. gracilis, and is, as its name denotes, an animal of more slender build than the Slow Loris. Its eyes are very large, and the limbs excessively
- ↑ "On the Angwantibo," Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 314.
