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SKIN-WINGED ANIMALS 



one genus of these creatures, of which the common Colugo 

 is best known. In construction it is very similar to the 

 Flying Squirrel and the so-called Flying Opossum of 

 Australia, in which the skin of the flanks is flattened and 

 extended to buoy up the animal in the air like a para- 

 chute. When full grown the Colugo is about the size of 

 a cat, and in colour it varies quite as much as does the 

 latter. 



In some respects the Flying Lemur, or Cobego, as it 

 is also called, bears no little resemblance to the members 



of the Chiroptera, the succeed- 

 ing order. The flying membrane 

 is not at all unlike that which 

 forms the wings of the bat ; and 

 the Colugo sleeps head down- 

 wards, suspended by its hind feet, 

 which is quite a general feature of 

 the Bats. In its powers of flight, 

 however, the Colugo falls short of 

 the bat, since it cannot attain a 

 higher elevation than that from 

 which it starts. In its progress 

 the creature's rate of descent is 

 about one foot in five, but it 

 possesses the power of directing 

 its flight to any given object. 

 Mr. Wallace says that he saw a 

 Colugo run up a tree to a height 

 of forty feet, from which it took a leap of seventy yards 

 to another trunk, the animal having clearly guided itself 

 to its goal. 



BONES OF HIND FOOT OF 

 THE COLUGO. 



