396 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
or twice when the dogs had been tackling one in the forest I have 
had to keep them out of the house for three weeks afterwards ! 
As it is said that Galeopithecus can alter its course of flight 
but in the smallest degree, I may mention that a very short 
time ago I saw one not only turn right round in its course, but, 
distinctly flapping its membranes, rise up a steep hill-side to the 
base of a tree some ten or twelve feet above the lowest point it 
had reached. I was within a very few yards of the tree at the 
time, so there could be no mistake in this observation. 
Two or three species of T’upaia are, with the exception of 
Monkeys, the commonest animals in our forest; they, together 
with Squirrels, are spoken of by the natives under the common 
name of “ Bassins” [or “ Bangsrings."—Ep.]. One, the largest 
of all, is a very handsome animal, having particularly thick glossy 
fur and a remarkably bushy tail; the head also is by no means 
sharp, so that the resemblance to a large Squirrel is most com- 
plete. None of the species I have seen are able to curl their 
tails up their backs, squirrel fashion, as I notice one is made 
to do in a sketch in a certain book on Natural History. The 
leaps from tree to tree taken by these animals are something 
extraordinary to see. 
We have no great number of reptiles here at Elopura, but, as 
with mammals, the species are varied. Snakes are rarely seen, 
and of these not one in ten is poisonous. In all my wanderings 
in the forest I have only come across two poisonous species. On 
one occasion I was pushing my way through some low bushes 
when I almost came face to face with a small green viper coiled 
on a branch about five feet from the ground; drawing back a yard, 
I struck about the middle of its coil with a sharp wood-knife 
I had in my hand, and it fell to the ground in a perfect little 
shower. The strength of the poison possessed by this species is 
very great. I one day took a kitten, and holding one of these 
vipers by the back of the neck, pressing it so as to open its 
mouth and project its poison-fangs, made just the slightest scratch 
on the kitten. With one bound she was out of my hands, and 
running about twenty yards fell over on her side motionless, and 
so remained for over a quarter of an hour when she began to 
recover, and at the end of two hours had quite recovered, and 
never seemed any the worse for it. All the poisonous Snakes 
here are extremely lazy, and the smaller species just referred to 
