THE ELEPHANT SHREWS. 15 1 



the still night ; the natives drew up around our fires ; fear of spirits 

 silenced their merry chatter. But the secret was soon betra^'ed : the 

 spirit whose voice resembled a distant cry of pain came in sight and 

 hovered slowly over our heads. It was a Flying Lemur." 



A female that lived for some time in captivity is described as a harm- 

 less, stupid creature. " It lay on its stomach with all its legs stretched 

 out, and then slowly and awkwardly hopped to the wall of the room, 

 which it tried to ascend. As the wood was planed it could not take 

 good hold of the surface, and after climbing a few feet it fell down again, 

 but the fall was always broken by the expanded membrane with which 

 nature has provided it." We do not possess much further knowledge 

 respecting the Flying Lemur. 



THE ELEPHANT SHRE\ArS. 



The animals of the famil}' Macroscelidid.*: are extraordinary little 

 creatures, and are called "elephant" on account of their trunk-like snout, 

 and "long-legged" because their hind-legs resemble somewhat those of 

 the Kangaroo. They are almost confined to South Africa, and extend 

 up the East Coast as far as tha Zambezi and Mozambique. They are 

 divided in three genera and ten species ; but two of the genera, Petro- 

 DROMUS and Rhynchocyon, are each represented by a single species. 



The Elephant Shrews are essentially leaping animals ; the hind- 

 legs are enormously elongated, and they possess usually five, sometimes 

 four short toes, with shoi^t, weak claws. The thin, short-haired tail is a 

 little shorter than the body ; the fur is thick and soft ; the teeth number 

 forty ; the long, proboscis-like nose is perforated at its extremity by the 

 nostrils which are placed obliquely, and it doubtless aids the animal in its 

 search for food, while the enormous length of its hinder-limbs enables it 

 to catch its prey with wonderful agility. 



I.— GENUS MACROSCELIDES. 



The typical Elephant Shrew, Macroscelides proboscideus (Plate V), 

 attains a length of nine inches, of which four and a half belong to the 

 tail. The snout is nearly an inch in length, and reddish-black at the ead. 

 The coat is a reddish-brown or mouse-gray, more or less bright, with 

 shades of white on the lower surface of tb*^ body; the ears are white 



