INSECT-EATING MAMMALS. 



43 



Tlie 



Flying-Lemurs. 

 -Family 



Galtopithtcidce . 



from tree to tree ; the tree-shrews are also arboreal ; the moles and some of 

 the shrews, on the other hand, are burrowers ; and the desmans, certain 

 shrews, and the African 1 otamogale are aquatic in their h.nbits. 



From all other members of the order the so-called flying-lemurs, or cobegos, 

 are at once distinguished by the presence of an expansion of the skin of the 

 sides of the body connecting the fore and hind-limbs, and 

 also by the toes of both feet being webbed right up to the 

 sharp and curved claws. The hind-legs are likewise con- 

 nected together in a similar manner ; the connecting skin 

 involving the whole of the long tail. Another remarkable 

 feature js to be found in the conformation of the incisor teeth, which in both 

 jaws are flattened from back to front, the upper ones being cusped, while 

 the lower ones differ from those of all other 

 Mammals ia being of a comb-like structure. 



The cobegos, of which there are two species 

 belonging to the single genus Oaleopithecus, 

 range from Tenasserim through the Malayan 

 Peninsula and Islands to the Philippines and 

 Siam. Unlike the ordinary members of the 

 order to which they are assigned, they subsist 

 mainly on leaves and fruits. During the day- 

 time they hang head-downwards in a bat-like 

 manner from the boughs or stems of trees ; 

 but at dusk and during the night pass from 

 tree to tree in long flying leaps, supported 

 by the parachute, such leaps being at times 

 as much as seventy yards in length. In size, 

 the common Malayan species may be com- 

 pared to an ordinary cat. Owing to their 

 great structural differences from the other 

 members of the order, the cobegos are regarded as forming a sub-order 

 by themselves, under the name of Dermoptera; all the other forms con- 

 stituting a second subordinal group known as the Insectivora Vera. 



The tree-shrews, or tupaias, of the Oriental countries, are the first of a 

 group of five families characterised by having broad upper molar teeth, upon 



the summits of which the numer- „ qh w 



ous small cusps are arranged more ramilv 



or less in the shape of the letter Tapaiidce. 

 W. In appearance the tree- 

 shrews, except as regards their long, pointed 

 muzzles, are so like small squirrels, that they 

 might easily be mistaken for those animals ; 

 and this resemblance, together with their arboreal 

 habits, is one of the features by which they 

 are most easily recognised. From the next 

 family they may be distinguished by the socket of 

 the eye being completely surrounded by bone in 

 the skull, and likewise by the metatarsus, or upper 

 portion of the hind-foot, being of normal propor- 

 tions. They are all animals of small size, with thick fur, short ears, and 

 the long tail either bushy throughout or with a pen-like expansion near the 

 end. Tree-shrews subsist on both insects and fruit, taking the latter in 



Fig. 22. — The Flying-Lemur 

 ( Galecypithecums volans). 



Fig. 23.— Tree-Shrew 

 (Tupaia tana). 



