tarsier Zool.
(ˈtɑːsɪə(r))
[a. F. tarsier, f. tarse tarsus. So named by Buffon from the structure of the foot: see quots.]
A small lemuroid quadruped, Tarsius spectrum, of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and the Philippines, called also malmag or spectre, related to the aye-aye of Madagascar.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 248 The last animal of this class is called by Mr. Buffon, the Tarsier... The bones of..the Tarsus, are..so very long, that from thence the animal has received its name. 1785 Smellie Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1791) VII. 171 The Tarsier, or Woolly Jerboa..is remarkable for the excessive length of its hind legs. The bones of the feet, and particularly those which compose the upper part of the tarsus, are prodigiously long. 1882 A. R. Wallace in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 427 The Tarsier, or spectre⁓lemur, of the Malay islands. |