394 



SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY 



ties and from the hind legs to the tail, so that it can sail through 

 the air for a considerable distance from tree to tree, much as the 



FlG. 383. Galeopithecus volans, the colugo. (After Yogt and Spreeht, from Parker and 



Haswell's Text-book.) 



flying squirrels do. There are many points in its anatomy 

 which differ from the typical Insectivora, and some scientists 

 place it in the order of Primates, to be considered later. 



Order 7. Chiroptera 



The Chiroptera (Gr. x €l P> hand, and irrepov, wing), or bats 

 (Fig. 384), are the flying mammals, and most of them are prac- 

 tically incapable of any other kind of locomotion. The wi 

 are delicate membranes, soft and silky, which extend from the 

 anterior to the posterior appendage, and between the two pos- 

 terior limbs, this last membrane being called the interfemoral. 

 All the digits of the anterior appendages except the first are 

 greatly elongated to form a support for the wings. The first 



