304 



THE INSECT-EATING ANIMALS. 



amuses by reason of its active and lively disposition, 

 but a captive Desman becomes very disagreeable 

 because of its musky odor, which is so strong that 

 it not only pervades the atmosphere of a room, but 

 any animal eating of the Desman becomes sensibly 

 impregnated with the odor. 



There is an American animal which is a 

 close relation of the Desmans of the Old 

 World, or rather, which may be regarded as 

 an intermediate form between the Desmans 

 and the Moles, but also resembling the Shrews in having only 

 two incisors in the lower jaw. This is the Neurotrichus (Neu- 

 rotrichus gibbsii) only found in western North America, and 

 first discovered in Washington Territory. Its total length is 

 slightly more than four inches, of which one and one-half 

 inch belongs to the hairy tail. The nose is elongated into a 

 snout, with nostrils at the tip. The animal makes burrows in 

 the ground, lined with leaves or dry grass. 



American 



Relative of the 



Desmans. 



Zbe CoIuqo, or IRaguang. 



SEVENTH FAMILY: Galeopithecid*:. 



The representatives of a distinct family, Galeo 

 pithecidae, containing but a single species, Galeo 

 pithecus, are neither 

 Half-Monkeys, Bats nor 

 Insect- Eaters, but pos- 

 sess distinctive charac- 

 teristics of all three, and 

 have ever been to nat- 

 uralists subjects of great 

 perplexity. In accord- 

 ance with this uncer- 

 tainty prevailing among 

 naturalists, the best 

 known variety of this 

 species is termed Flying 

 Monkey, Flying Lemur, 

 Flying Cat, Marvelous 

 Bat, etc. 



The Galeopithecus is 

 a slender animal, of the 

 size of a Cat; its limbs 

 are of moderate length 

 and are united by wide, 

 thick skin, covered with 

 hair on both sides. The 

 toes are five in number 

 and have retractile, 

 claw-like nails, and no 

 opposable thumb. The 

 short tail is involved in 

 the membrane. The 

 head is relatively small, 

 the muzzle much elon- 

 gated, the eyes are mod- 

 erately large, the fur- 

 covered ears small. The 

 membrane is not adapt- 

 ed for flying, but is only 

 a parachute, intended to 

 favor longer leaps and slower descent, and does not 

 correspond to the wing membrane of Bats. It is a 

 continuation of the skin of the body; it begins on 

 each side at the neck, envelops the fore-legs to the 

 paws, extends laterally, in unvarying width, to the 

 hind-legs, which it also envelops to the paws and 

 then continues to an apex at the tip of the tail. In 

 this way the limbs and tail are, to a certain degree, 

 encased in a common membrane. 



The Colugo, or Kaguang, called Cubin by the Ma- 

 lays {Galeopithecus volatis), attains a total length of 



THE COLUGO. This animal, also known as the Kaguang, has proven 



a puzzle to zoologists. It was formerly placed among the Bats, then with the 

 Half-Monkeys, and is now ranked as a species of the Insect-Eating animals. 

 Its notable feature is the membranous formation which it uses as a parachute 

 in jumping long distances from the tops of trees, (Galeopithecus volans.) 



twenty-four inches, about four and one-half inches 

 of which go to the tail; the fur is close on the 

 back and scanty on the fore-arms, while the shoul- 

 der region and sides of the body are naked. Its 

 upper surface is brownish red, the under one assum- 

 ing a duskier hue; in youth the upper parts are 

 brownish gray and the sides dark gray, but the limbs 

 and flying membrane are marked with light spots at 

 all periods of life. If we assume the different varie- 

 ties to form but one species, we may say that the 

 Kaguang is distributed over the Sunda Islands, the 

 Moluccas, the Philippine Islands, and the Malayan 

 Peninsula as far as Tenasserim. 



Life of the In the daytime the Galeopithecus, 

 Colugo De- which leads a solitary life on the 

 scribed. mountainous forests of Java, sits so 



still amidst the branches of trees between forking 

 limbs that it is nearly impossible to detect it. Its 

 sharp claws enable it to climb with agility and 

 immunity from falling, while its progress on the 

 ground is limited to a painful, lumbering crawl. 

 Plucking fruit, and searching for insects, it climbs 

 upward until it has reached the top of a tree, and 



then launches itself 

 obliquely downward to 

 another tree-top, "re- 

 minding the observer of 

 a paper -kite," as Von 

 Rosenberg has it. When 

 engaged in walking or 

 climbing its flying mem- 

 brane is lightly folded 

 against the body in such 

 a manner as not to hin- 

 der its movements. 

 When it wishes to make 

 use of the membrane, it 

 runs out to the extrem- 

 ity of a bough, leaps off 

 with a vigorous bound, 

 spreading all its limbs 

 in the air and then floats 

 slowly and obliquely 

 down, traversing dis- 

 tances which are said 

 to frequently measure 

 horizontally as much as 

 one hundred and eighty 

 feet. It never ascends 

 to a higher plane than 

 the one from which it 

 started on its flight, but 

 always sinks downward 

 at an angle of consider- 

 able inclination. During 

 the day it suspends itself 

 from trees, according to 

 Wallace, mainly pro- 

 tected from discovery 

 by its fur, which, with 

 its irregular whitish spots disseminated on a ground- 

 work of olive or brown, closely resembles the color 

 of the mottled bark. Its tail is prehensile and 

 it probably makes use of it in its search for food, 

 which consists principally of leaves. "It is said," 

 Wallace further observes, "that the Galeopithecus 

 produces only a single young one at a birth, and my 

 observations confirm this statement; for once I shot 

 a female, which had a very small, tender, naked, 

 wrinkled and blind creature clinging to her breast, 

 reminding one of the young pouched animals." 



