"POCKET PET" IN ZOO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18333, 24 February 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

"POCKET PET" IN ZOO.

A MINIATURE LEMUR.

One of the prettiest and smallest mammals at the London Zoo has arrived from Sierra Leone after a voyage as first-cabin, stateroom passenger on board the R.M.S. Appam. • Puff, as the newcomer is called, is a Demidoff's Galago—a miniature lemur— about the size of a mouse, with fur almost as soft as floss silk, and great wondrous eyes which gleam brightly in the dark. The galagos, of which there are several species are known as "bush babies," because of their plaintive cries, and Puff is a veritable babe of babies.

Like all of her kind, she is nocturnal, and, but for the disappearance of sliced banana, grapes and condensed milk placed in her cage each evening, you would never think that she left her diminutive sleep-ing-box. Puff was brought to the gardens by her little mistress, apparently only about four years old, confined in the daintiest of cages, heavily swathed in rugs, with a cosy cot of rushwork and a tiny blanket, and with a wonderful erection of poles and perches for climbing purposes. Puff's mistress seemed very reluctant to part with her pet, who nestled contentedly in the palm of her hand, ahd, on parting, she whispered a sorrowful promise to "ooxno back toon,"