Owl-eyed Monkey

One of the Freaks We Got with Our New Possessions.

A queer creature lately discovered to be the great-grandfather of mankind will become a United States subject with the ratification of the peace treaty. Uncle Sam is to exhibit expansion of his lower animal kingdom in the National Zoological Park here. Dr. Frank Zaker, superintendent of the park, has just departed upon a tour of collection. The government naturalists are now giving their attention to the strange fauna of the islands soon to become or already classed as our new possessions. Little scientific attention has been given to these species hitherto. They are practically unknown save to several travelers whose reports have been lately obtained. The government's savants are delighted at the prospect of poking straws into the cage of a real live 'tarsier." It may be you have no idea who Senor Tarsier is. Professor Hubrecht of the University of Utrecht has lately discovered that he is no less a personage than a "link" connecting Grandfather Monkey with his ancestors. Thus the evolutionary scale would be changed by Professor Hubrecht to run - man, ape, monkey, tarsier and so on, tarsier appearing as what may be popularly termed the great-grandfather of mankind. Tarsier may best be described as having a face like an owl and a body, limbs and tail like those of a monkey. His sitting height is about that of the squirrel. As his enormous optics would lead one to suppose, he cuts capers in the night and sleeps in the daytime, concealed usually in abandoned clearings where new growth has sprung up to a height of 20 feet or more. Very often he sleeps in a standing posture, grasping the lower stem of a small tree with his long and slender fingers and toes. During his nightly wanderings he utters a squeak like that of a monkey. During the day the pupils of his eyes contract to fine lines, but after dark expand until they fill most of the irises. From his habit of feeding only upon insects he has a strong fat-like odor.