of the Malayan Peninsula. 399 
distinguished in common with the other families by having their 
form adapted for flight, a strong expansile membrane running 
from the throat to the fore-feet, thence to the hind-feet, and 
from them to the tail. 
Mr. Stark says*, that “the Galeopithect are but imperfectly 
known ;” and again, “that the largest speciesknown is not bigger 
than a young cat.” He enumerates but three species, viz. G. 
rufus, which he classes with the Lemur volans, or flying macauco 
of Linneeus; the G. variegatus, supposed by some naturalists to 
be but a variety of the preceding; and the G. ¢ternatensis. I am 
inclined to think that either the Lemur volans of Linnzus is a 
distinct species, or else that the specimen from the Pellew islands, 
which this author states to be about a foot long, must have been 
a young one, as the animals of this nature in the Malayan pe- 
ninsula are fully three feet long, and thus agree with the Lin- 
neean Lemur volans, and measure the same across when the mem- 
brane is expanded. 
The Galeopithecus rufus is of a dusky red; but the fur of the 
species now under consideration consists chiefly of brown, inter- 
spersed with soft and hoary, or grayish-coloured hairs, which are 
also sprinkled on the upper surface of the membrane. The inside 
of the latter is fibrous and nearly naked. The tail long, slender, 
and hairy. Toes five on each foot, armed with acute, crooked, 
and slender claws. Head long, fox-shaped; mouth and teeth 
small; ears rounded, small and membranaceous; mammez two, 
pectoral. - 
Nocturnal in its habits, it is seldom seen before sunset, when 
it springs from tree to tree in search of its food, which consists 
of insects and small birds. When the animal makes these leaps, 
it expands the membrane in order to support the body by the 
resistance of the air: it always alights however lower than the 
place it started from, owing to the insufficiency of this resistance 
to thoroughly buoy up the weight of its body; and it would, at. 
the termination of a few successive leaps, find itself on the ground, 
were it not every now and then to run up the trunk on which 
it alights. The one which fell into my’possession in 1882 had 
a young one clinging to the breast, and, owing to this incum- 
brance and the closeness of the pursuit, which deprived her of 
the opportunity of climbing, was speedily a prisoner. Both she 
and her young one however made a vigorous resistance, emitting 
sharp and unpleasant cries at the same time, and were not easily 
secured even with the assistance of two or three Europeans. 
Piteropus Javanicus, Desm., Leschenault (syn. Vespertilio 
vampyrus, var. 3. Linn.). The Javanese Bat, Kulowang in Ma- 
* Elements of Natural History, vol. i. p. 65. 
