ISO INSECTIVORA. 



withstanding the disagreeable odor their flesh exhales, eat them with- 

 out repugnance. 



The Colugo attains a length of two feet, including the tail ; the back 

 is thickly covered with hair of a brownish-red color, becoming darker 

 on the under surface. It is found in Sumatra, the Moluccas, and the 

 Philippine Islands. 



It is difficult to obtain any satisfactory account of the habits of the 

 Colugo in its native forests, as many travelers have, beyond all doubt, 

 confused it with the Flying Fox (Ptcropus cdulis). Nearly all the infor- 

 mation we possess is given by Wallace : " This creature has a broad 

 membrane, extending all round its body to the extremities of the toes 

 and to the point of the rather long tail. This enables it to pass obliquely 

 from one tree to another. It is sluggish in its motions, at least by day, 

 going up a tree by short runs of a few feet, and then stopping a moment 

 as if the action were difficult. It rests during the day clinging to the 

 trunks of trees, where its olive or brown fur, mottled with irregular 

 whitish spots and blotches, resembles closely the color of mottled bark, 

 and helps to protect it. Once in a bright twilight I saw one of these 

 animals run up a trunk in a rather open space, and then glide obliquely 

 through the air to another tree, on which it alighted near the base and 

 immediately began to ascend. I paced the distance from one tree to 

 another and found it to be seventy yards, and the amount of descent I 

 estimated at not more than thirty-five or forty feet, or less than one in 

 five. This, I think, proves that the animal has some power of guiding 

 itself through the air. The Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and 

 possesses a very voluminous stomach and long convoluted intestines. 

 The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such tenacity of life 

 that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by ordinary means. The tail is 

 prehensile, and is probably made use of as an additional support while 

 feeding. It is said to have only a single young one at a time ; and my 

 own observation confirms this statement, for I once shot a female with a 

 very small, blind, and naked creature clinging closely to its, breast, which 

 was quite bare and much wrinkled. On the back and over the limbs and 

 membrane the fur of these animals is short but exquisitely soft, resem- 

 bUng the chinchilla." 



A German traveler writes : " We heard a shriek so peculiar and pain- 

 ful that we seemed to hear the cry of a child or the scream of some 

 sufferer. Weird and disagreeable, it echoed from time to time through 



