314 THE INSECTIVORES 



itself through the air, otherwise in so long a distance it would have little chance of 

 alighting upon the trunk. The galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and possesses 

 a very voluminous stomach and long convoluted intestines. The hair is very small ; 

 and the animal possesses such a remarkable tenacity of life that it is exceedingly 

 difficult to kill it by any ordinary means. The tail is prehensile, and is probably 

 made use of as an additional support while feeding. The animal is said to have 

 only a single young one at a time ; and my own observation confirms this state- 

 ment, for I once shot a female, with a very small, blind, and naked little creature 

 clinging closely to its breast, which was quite bare and much wrinkled, reminding 

 me of the young of the Marsupials, to which it seemed to form a transition. On 

 the back, and extending over the limbs and membrane, the fur of these animals is 

 short but exquisitely soft, resembling in its texture that of the chinchilla." 



A very similar account is given of this species in Java by a much earlier writer, 

 Horsfield, who states that, in addition to leaves, it feeds on the fruits of several trees 

 when in an unripe condition, among these being young cocoanuts. In Java it is 

 said to be " confined to particular districts, where it is met with chiefly on isolated 

 hills, covered with a fertile soil, and abounding with young luxuriant trees, the 

 branches of which afford it a safe concealment during the day. As the evening ap- 

 proaches, it leaves its retreat, and is seen in considerable numbers making oblique 

 leaps from one tree to another ; it also discovers itself by a croaking, harsh, disa- 

 greeable noise." 



Of the slightly smaller Philippine cobego (G. philippinensis) , re- 

 stricted to the islands from which it takes its name, we have a short 

 Cobego 



account by Professor Moseley in his Naturalist on the Challenger. This 

 observer relates how, when on Basilan island one of the Philippines he was 

 conducted by a native guide to a particular spot, for the purpose of shooting speci- 

 mens of this animal. Here "some few trees were standing isolated, not having 

 been as yet felled on the clearing. On one of these, after much search, a kaguan 

 was seen hanging to the shady side of a tall trunk. It was an object very easily 

 seen, much more so than I expected. It moved up the tree with a shambling, jerky 

 gait, hitching itself up apparently by a series of short springs. It did not seem dis- 

 posed to take a flying leap, so I shot it. It was a female with a young one clinging 

 to the breast. It was in a tree at least forty yards distant from any other, and must 

 have flown that length to reach it. I understood from my guide that numbers of 

 these animals were caught when trees were cut down in clearing. They are espe- 

 cially abundant at the island of Bojol, north of Mindanao ; their skins were sold 

 at Zebu, which lies near, at five dollars a dozen." 



In their leaf-eating habits the cobegos stand apart from all other Insectivores, 

 in this respect occupying the same relationship to the typical members of the order 

 as is presented by the fruit-bats, to the typical bats. Instead of possessing the 

 power of true flight, characteristic of the bats, the cobego merely enjoys spurious 

 flight, or the power of continuing the extension of an ordinary leap by the aid of its 

 parachute. 



It would require but comparatively little further modification to alter a cobego 

 into a creature much resembling a bat, and endowed with the power of true flight ; 



