1875.] Flying Lemur. 13 



in a bright twilight," he adds, " I saw one of these animals run up a 

 trunk in a rather open space, and then glide obliquely through the air to 

 another tree, on which it alighted near its base, and immediately began to 

 ascend. I paced the distance from one tree to the other, and found it to 

 be seventy yards ; and the amount of descent at not more than thirty-five 

 or forty feet, or less than one in five. This I think proves that the 

 animal must have some power of guiding itself through the air ; otherwise 

 in so long a distance it would have little chance of alighting exactly 

 upon the trunk. Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the OdlcBopitheous feeds 

 chiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach and long con- 

 voluted intestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses such 

 remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any 

 ordinary means. The tail is prehensile, and is probably made use of as an 

 additional support when feeding. It is said to have only a single young 

 one at a time, and my own observation confirms this statement, for I once 

 shot a female, with a very small blind and naked little creature clinging 

 closely to its breast, which was quite bare and much wrinkled, reminding 

 me of the young of marsupials, to which it seemed to form a transition. 

 On the back, and extending over the limbs and membrane, the fur of these 

 animals is short, but exquisitely soft, resembling in its texture that of the 

 Chinchilla."* Baffles, however, states that it produces two young at a 

 time, and Mr. A. Adams, who accompanied Sir E. Belcher in the exploring 

 voyage of H. M.S. " Samarang," found two young in one which he dissected. 

 He observed this animal "both in Borneo and Basilan in a wild state. It 

 is crepuscular," he adds, " and hangs suspended during the day to the 

 under surface of boughs in the tops of high trees. "When it moves, it seems 

 to shuffle and scramble among the leaves, and sometimes drops suddenly 

 from its elevated position. It feeds on leaves, and the stomach of one I 

 examined was filled with the remains of the foliage of Artocarpus and 

 other trees. At Sarawak I had a living Cobego in my possession, which 

 was procured on the occasion of felling some trees, in the top of one of 

 which the animal was suspended. It was very inactive on the ground, 

 and did not attempt to bite or resist."! "^ n several shot on the hill at 

 Pinang," remarks Dr. Cantor, "the stomach" contained vegetable matter, 

 but no remains of insects. In confinement, plantains constitute the 

 favourite food, but deprived of liberty the animal soon pines and dies."J 



* WaEace's "Travels in the Malay Archipelago," vol. i. p. 135. 

 t Notes, etc. (1848), p. 265. J J. A. S. B. xv. p. 178. 



