FLYING LEMUR. 
67 
itself to tlie place it aims at in a gentle manner ; 
but in ascending it uses a leaping pace. It has 
two young, which are said to adhere to its breasts 
by the mouth and claws. The whole length of 
the animal is about three feet ; the breadth, when 
expanded, nearly the same : the tail is slender* 
and about a span long. The membrane, or 
expansile skin by which it is enabled to fly* 
is continued on each side, from the neck to the 
fore feet, thence to the hind feet, and again 
to the tip of the tail ; it is not naked, like 
the skin of a bat's wing, but covered with fur 
in the same manner as the body : the inner* 
or lower side, however, appears membrana- 
ceous, and is marked by numerous veins and 
fibres dispersed through it. The whole upper 
side of the animal is generally of a deep ash co- 
lour, most so in those which are full grown, and 
blacker in the younger, or less advanced speci- 
mens ; the back also, in the full grown animals* 
is crossed transversely with blackish lines ; to- 
wards the edges, is commonly a tinge of yellow- 
ish, and the whole underside, both of the body 
and membranes, is of a yellowish colour. The 
head is long ; the mouth rather small ; the 
tongue, according to Dr. Pallas, fleshy, broad* 
rounded, attenuated on the edges, and ciliated with 
papillae, as in the opossums ; it is also slightly 
beset with papillae on its surface. There are no 
fore teeth in the upper jaw ; but in the lower 
are six, which are short, broad, and pretty deeply 
pectinated, so as to resemble little combs on their 
upper part ; the canine teeth, or at least those 
which Dr. Pallas considers as such, are shaped 
somewhat like the petrifactions known by the 
name of glossopetrae, being triangular, very broad 
at their base, very short, sharp -pointed, and ser- 
