156 NATURE STUDIES. 



animals, of which Toxodon is the chief, presents us 

 with a combination of characters mingling those of the 

 " Hoofed " forms with those of Rodents and Eden- 

 tates such as the Sloths, Ant-eaters, &c. 



As a final example of the curious " links " between 

 existing forms, which may be found amongst the 

 treasures disclosed by scientific inquiry, the curious 

 " Flying Lemurs" (Galeopitheciis) may be mentioned. 

 These animals are found in the Eastern Archipelago, 

 and resemble squirrels in appearance. A curious fold 

 of skin stretches from the sides of the neck to the 

 fore limbs, and between hind limbs and tail. The 

 body is thus fringed, as it were, by a broad fold of 

 skin, and although, unlike the bats, the flying lemurs 

 do not possess true powers of flight, the skin-folds 

 serve as a kind of parachute, supporting these animals 

 in the air, as they take their flying leaps from tree to 

 tree. In their internal anatomy, these animals exhibit 

 transitional features, and on the whole may be regarded 

 as linking the Insectivora with the higher group of 

 the Primates in which Man and Apes are included. 

 Whilst it seems tolerably clear that the Bats them- 

 selves are merely Insectivorous animals which have 

 undergone the modifications fitting them for true 

 flight. 



Such is a brief and meagre outline of the result of 

 an incursion into the province of geology as that 

 science relates itself to the past history of living forms. 

 In concluding the series of papers on " Found Links," 

 I may perhaps be permitted to add that the design of 



