ANIMAL FLIGHT 119 



himself and the observer, and launches out into the air. At 

 first he falls diagonally and usually quite abruptly downward, 

 his course gradually curving outward until his body is parallel 

 with the ground, when he suddenly shoots upward and lands 

 on the trunk of another tree, instantly disappearing around the 

 trunk and mounting to the upper branches either to hide or to 

 launch forth again. He is an expert in the art of keeping a 

 tree between himself and his pursuer, and because of the differ- 

 ence in color between the upper and under sides of his body 

 he sometimes seems in the mottled shadows of the woods to 

 disappear while in full flight. As he is not very much larger 

 than a mouse he can hide very easily, and altogether he is quite 

 an elusive creature. 



In the forests of the East Indies there Hves the flying maki, 

 or Galcopithccus, an animal very different from the flying 

 squirrel, but resembling it in its gliding flight. The parachute 

 hke extensions of its skin are relatively larger than those of 

 any other gliding animal, and it is able to "fly" for more than 

 two hundred feet. 



New Guinea and AustraHa, especiaUy New South Wales, are 

 the home of the flying opossums, some of which are among 

 the smallest of all known mammals measuring scarcely five 

 and a half inches in length with the tail making up more than 

 half of this. These little creatures are more expert on the wing 

 than the flying squirrels or the flying maki, and are able to 

 twist and turn to an astonishing degree. The great forests 

 south of the Sahara are inhabited by the flying mouse, a Httle 

 creature with the habits of the flying opossums. 



In the East Indian region are found the flying lizards. These 

 are rather small lizards with a broad thin semicircular pro- 

 jection Hke a broad fin stiffened by processes from the ribs on 

 either side of the body by means of which they are enabled to 

 ghde through the air after the manner of the flying squirrels. 

 Like the flying squirrels they glide obliquely downward until 

 near their objective, when they turn and finish their flight with 

 a short upward glide. 



