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THE HARMONIES OF NATUKE. 



the posterior limbs and the tail, the flying lemur or galeo- 

 pithecus of the Eastern Archipelago takes long sweeping leaps 

 from tree to tree; and the flying-squirrels, which inhabit both 

 the interminable forests of the North and the woods of Ceylon 

 and India, are assisted in a similar manner by a fold of the 



Flying Squirrel. 



skin of the flanks, which on the extension of the limbs, front 

 and rear, is literally expanded from foot to foot. Thus buoyed 

 up in their descent, the spring which these elegant little 

 creatures are enabled to make from one lofty tree to another, 

 always directing their flight obliquely downwards, resembles 

 the swift aerial sailing of a bird rather than the bound of a 

 quadruped. 



