CHAPTER LI 



ANIMAL LOCOMOTION— PARACHUTING AND 

 KITE-FLYING 



The present chapter is not headed " muscular " locomotion, as 

 are those which precede it, because it deals with two kinds of 

 progression which are of a passive nature, or mainly so. 



PARACHUTING 



The word "parachute " is applied by aeronauts to an umbrella- 

 like arrangement by means of which perilous descents are made 

 from balloons, &c. The opening out of the parachute offers so 

 large a surface of resistance to the air that the fall is thereby 

 broken. 



In what may be called Parachute Animals we find expan- 

 sions of the body which answer a similar purpose. As might be 

 anticipated, it is among arboreal forms that we must chiefly look 

 for examples of this kind of adaptation. Its practical use is 

 obvious, for descent from one tree-branch to another, or even 

 to the ground, is thus rendered comparatively safe and easy. 

 And parachuting is of great evolutionary interest, for it probably 

 constituted a prelude to flight. Unfortunately, however, our 

 geological knowledge is as yet too incomplete to enable us to 

 form any clear idea of the way in which wings were evolved 

 from parachutes. 



Mammals (Mammalia) as Parachutists. — Striking instances 

 of this adaptation are to be found in certain members of the 

 following orders: — Insect- Eating Mammals (Insectivora), Gnawing 

 Mammals (Rodentia), and Pouched Mammals (Marsupialia). 



Insect-Eating Mammals (Insectivora) as Paracluttists. — Only 

 one species here included can claim to be a thorough -going 

 parachutist. This is the Colugo or Flying "Lemur" {Gaieopi- 

 thecus) of South-east Asia, a much larger animal than its con- 



VOL. III. 231 81 



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