THE COLUGO, OR PLYING LEMUR. 293 



ascend it, but takes exactly an opposite course. It 

 ascends to one of the topmost branches, makes a spring 

 in the direction of the spot which it wishes to reach, 

 and spreads out its limbs to the fullest extent. It 

 then skims through the air much after the manner 

 of an oyster- shell or a piece of slate when used in 

 making f{ ducks and drakes/' and can in this manner 

 pass over a distance of a hundred yards or so without 

 coming to the ground. 



Perhaps the reader may say that the oyster-shell or 

 slate rotates, while the Colugo cannot do so.* That is 

 true enough, but the rotatory motion has nothing to 

 do with the skimming movement of the missile 

 through the air. It only serves, according to the 

 well-known law by which the arrow and the rifle-bullet 

 are kept steadily in their course, to preserve the mis- 

 sile in its proper position ; and as the Colugo can do 

 this by means of the inflection of its body, rotation is 

 not needed, and is therefore not employed. In point 

 of fact, the Colugo is sustained in the air on precisely 

 the same principle as is a boy's kite, the relationship 

 of forces being identical in either case, although they 

 are applied in a rather different manner. 



A figure of the Colugo, shown as it appears while 

 passing through the air, is given in Cut 12. The 

 reader will notice the singularly close resemblance be- 

 tween this animal and the flying petaurist, which is 

 shown in the lower corner of Plate V. 



Among the points in which the Colugo resembles 

 the bat tribe, two may be specially mentioned. In 

 the ordinary monkey, the mammae are placed upon 

 the breast, whereas in the Colugo they are set upon 



