FLYING FOXES. 331 



is a curious fact that the legends and traditions of Java 

 assert, that the inhabitants of that island came from 

 Borneo ; and indeed some writers believe, that all the 

 different races belonging to the Asiatic Islands were 

 derived from this common focus, although it is far more 

 likely, in my opinion, that, as Dr. Prichard conceives, all 

 the various races of these islands may originally have 

 been derived from the peninsula of Malacca, which con- 

 stitutes the south-eastern extremity of Asia ; for that is 

 the only continent which contains men at all resembling 

 in physical characters the Oceanic tribes. 



The Pteropi, or Flying Foxes, take their departure at 

 the fall of day, from their places of concealment, among 

 the low islands, in thousands, ah 1 steadily wending their 

 way towards the huge forests of the interior, where their 

 favourite fruits are found, and at the early blush of dawn 

 they are seen returning, in like manner, to their diurnal 

 haunts, where they hide in hollow trees, or caverns 

 among the rocks, or hang suspended by the thumbs 

 from the under-surface of the trees among the dense 

 foliage. When the Pteropus flies, he generally chooses an 

 exalted station in the air, and his motions are deliberate, 

 noiseless, and crow-like. 



At the watering-place not far from the small village of 

 Calderas, among other interesting specimens, I captured 

 the rare Utica yracttipes, (White) which has the very re- 

 markable habit of strongly contracting all its members 

 when caught, with what may be termed a cataleptic rigi- 

 dity ; and this trick, together with its singular tabular 

 brown carapace, enables it to escape detection among the 

 dead leaves and rotten pieces of wood, which almost in- 



