282 ANIMAL MOVEMENT 



geners, being about the size of a cat. In structure it is so 

 peculiar that there is some doubt as to its classifactory position. 

 But the Colugo is generally held to be an aberrant Insectivore, 

 though, as a mark of its isolated position, it is placed in a 

 distinct sub-order {permaptera). All the ordinary Insectivores 

 (such as Shrews, Hedgehogs, Moles, &c. ) are grouped in a 

 second sub-order as True Insectivora {Insectivora vera). 



The parachute consists of folds of hairy skin which run from 

 neck to arm, connect the sides of the body with both pairs of 

 limbs, and bind together hind -limbs and tail. Both feet and 

 hands are webbed, but of course this simply means further ex- 

 tension of surface for parachuting, and has nothing to do with 

 swimming. Comparatively little is known about the habits of 

 this remarkable creature, but Wallace (in The Malay Archi- 

 pelago) gives the following account of one which he observed in 

 Sumatra: — "Once, in a bright twilight, I saw one of these animals 

 run up a trunk in a rather open place, and then glide obliquely 

 through the air to another tree, on which it aligrhted near its 

 base, and immediately began to ascend. I paced the distance 

 from the one tree to the other, and found it to be seventy yards ; 

 and the amount of descent I estimated 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." 



Gnawing Mammals (Rodentia) as Parachutists. — So-called 

 " Flying "-Squirrels inhabit the Northern Hemisphere and Africa. 

 Of these the largest and best-known (species of Pteromys) are 

 native to South and South-east Asia. A typical form is the 

 Brown Flying- Squirrel {^Pteromys petaitristd), which may be as 

 much as i8 inches in length, exclusive of the large bushy tail. 

 In general appearance this creature is not unlike a common 

 squirrel, were it not for the presence of parachute folds, resem- 

 bling those of the Colugo. But only the base of the tail is in 

 this case united with the hind-limbs, and the edge of the fold at 

 the side of the body is supported in front by a bar of gristle 

 stretching back from the wrist. The nature of the parachuting 

 movement appears to be similar to those already described for 

 the Colugo, and not far short of eighty yards is said to be the 

 maximum length of the downward "flights" that are made through 



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