in] FLYING LIZARDS 



monest amongst them is a gecko, the i: chichak," which name imitates 

 perfectly the cry it produces ; and at Government House they could 

 be heard and seen every evening chasing moths attracted by the 

 lights on the ceiling of the dining room. Some fell on the table, nearly 

 always at the expense of their very fragile tail. A much louder and 

 more characteristic cry is that of Goniocephalns oomeensis, a large 

 lizard which lives on trees and has a high and serrated crest down 

 its back. The Malays call this lizard " kog-go," an imitation of 

 its call-note, which is frequently repeated. The cry of this species, 

 like that of the wa-wa, is so singular that one can hardly believe 

 that it is not produced by some bird ; and it is one of those, 

 with others even more frequent of the cicadas and hornbills, that 

 most impress the traveller who is not yet accustomed to their daily 

 occurrence. 



Several poisonous snakes are found in Borneo, amongst others 

 the Trigonocephalus wagleri, of which the Malays assert that the 

 potency of its poison is such, that when a person is bitten bv it he 

 has not even time to take off his jacket before falling dead. In 

 Kuching the cobra (Xaja tripudians) is found, but it is not common. 

 As a matter of fact, during my whole stay in Borneo I never once 

 heard of a death caused by snake-bite. 1 



Amongst the various small reptiles which we were able to collect 

 in our neighbourhood the most singular were the flying lizards {Draco), 

 the " belalang sumbak " of the Malays. These surprising little 

 creatures can be seen at any moment during the hot hours of the 

 day flying through the air from one palm tree to another by the aid 

 of the membranous expansion with which the sides of their bodies 

 are provided. When they take their spring the}' start with the 

 head downwards ; when they reach their destination they alight 

 with the head upwards. We used to get these flying lizards with 

 the " sumpitan " or blow-tube, of which I shall speak further on, 

 but instead of darts we used clay bullets. 



In Borneo there are not only flying lizards, but also flying squirrels, 

 flying foxes, flying frogs, and, could we believe the Malays, flying 

 snakes. Of the latter I have seen none, nor do I know of any such. 

 mentioned in any scientific work. It is not impossible, however, 

 that in the unexplored parts of Borneo, yet unknown to naturalists, 

 a tree-snake may exist capable of spreading out the skin of its sides 



1 The collection of reptiles formed by Doria and myself in Borneo con- 

 tained eighty- eight species, of which nineteen were new to science. They 

 were described by Peters and Doria in a paper published in the Annali del 

 Museo Civico di Genova, vol. hi., p. 27, pi. ii.-iv. Genoa, 1872. A general list 

 of the Reptilia and Batrachia Anura of Borneo has been published by M. F. 

 Moquard in Nouvelles Archives du Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, 3* serie, 

 vol. xii., p. 115. Paris, 1890. The species enumerated are 204; of which 

 three are crocodiles, forty-nine lizards, 103 snakes and forty-nine frogs. 



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