FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION | i FORSCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OSBORN LIBRARY OF VERTEBRATE PALv^LONTOLOGY PRESENTED APRIL 16T" 1908 More Natural History Essays UNDER AFRICAN SKIES. More Natjaral History Essays. '5H y\ : o 6 BY GRAHAM RENSHAW, M.B., F.Z.S. author of "Natural History Essays." ILLUSTRATED. Sherratt & Hughes 65 Long Acre London W. 27 St Ann Street Manchester 1905 C 2- Zo my /IDotber PREFACE. The kind reception accorded by both Press and public to my previous book of Natural History Essays has encouraged the preparation of the present work as a com- panion volume. Written on similar lines, it differs from its predecessor in treating of mammalian types selected from the fauna of the world rather than from that of Africa only, although examples of the latter also occupy a place in its pages. GRAHAM RENSHAW. Bridge House Sale, Manchester October, 1905. CONTENTS. I. The Spectre Tarsier II. The Vampire Bat III. The Flying Lemur... V IV. The Elephant Shrew V. The Clouded Tiger i/ VI. The Hunting Leopard VII. The Antarctic Wolf u VIII. The Hy^na Dog IX. The Jamaica Seal X. The Addax Antelope XI. The Sable Antelope XII. The Malay Tapir ... XIII. The Northern Sea-Cow XIV. The White Whale ... XV. The Prevost Squirrel XVI. The Common Chinchilla XVII. The Great Anteater XVIII. The Hairy Armadillo XIX. The Tasmanian Thylacine XX. The True Echidna ... PAGE 1 11 21 31 44 65 77 93 108 119 128 143 155 170 183 191 198 211 216 233 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Under African Skies ... ... ... ... Frontispiece. TO FACE PAGE Banana Trees ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 The Home of the Elephant Shrew ... ... ... 31 Clouded Tiger ... ... ... ... ... ... 44 Hunting Leopards sunning themselves ... ... ... 65 Addax in Summer Coat ... ... ... ... ...118 Addax in Winter Coat ... ... ... ... ... 120 Sable Antelope ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 Sable Antelope Calf... ... ... ... ... ... 1. "54 Malay Tapir ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 153 Whale Room in the Natural History Museum ... ... 172 Common Chinchilla ... ... ... ... ... ...191 Anteaters ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 200 Young Anteater ... ... ... ... ... ...210 Hairy Armadillo ... ... ... ... ... ... 212 Tasmanian Thylacine... ... ... ... ... ...2l6 True Echidna ... ... ... .,, ... ... ... 233 Dingo 23p THE SPECTRE TARSIER ^^v ^^ ^-^K '^--i«.\:-i\'' BANANA TREES. THE SPECTRE TARSIER Few save professional naturalists are really con- versant with a tithe of the animals which are exhibited in museums and zoological gardens. So great is the number of species now known that taking the mammalia only, the tyro in zoological science has before him a new world to explore, while the advanced worker still possesses an inexhaustible mine. The nocturnal creatures, being from their very nature difficult to study, perhaps exhibit in greatest degree that element of mystery which forms so great a part of the composite, many-sided charm of this delightful Science: therefore, these Essays may well commence with an example selected from their ranks. The lemurs, with their great staring eyes and ghost-like movements, are indeed weirdly attractive, and some of the lesser species recall the quaint hobgoblins of fairy tales. Perhaps the most singular of all this singular host, the king of the goblins, is the little tarsier lemur of the Philippine Islands and the East Indies. The spectre tarsier {Tarsius spectrum) — malmag of the Bohol natives — is about the size of a small rat, the length of the body being about six inches and that of the tail about eight. The head is rounded and catlike, with large erect ears. The eyes are enormous and staring, being so closely 2 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS approximated that the small pug nose seems almost crowded out of the face: in the dried skull the orbits are very wide and deep. The feeble jaws indicate a diet at least partly insectivorous; beneath the tongue is the small cartilaginous plate or sublingua which occurs in many lemurs, and is supposed by Professor Gegenbaur to correspond to the reptilian tongue. The fingers and toes are markedly elongated; they expand at the tips to flattened discs, which perhaps exercise a true suctorial action, like the adhesive pads of the myxopoda bat of Mada- gascar. Be this as it may, a stuffed tarsier in the Manchester Museum has the tips of the fingers concave underneath; one can well understand the value of such natural cupping-glasses to an arboreal animal like the present, whose life might depend on the tenacity of its grip. Some of the toe-nails are pointed and erect — not applied closely to the flesh as in ourselves. The innermost or "great" toe is flat ; the middle ones are pointed and erect ; while the remaining outer ones are again flat. The long tail is remarkable for being haired at root and tip, naked in the middle; it probably counterpoises the body in leaping. The foot exhibits a remarkable elongation of the ankle (a very rare feature in mammals), so that the animal is supported on a pair of natural stilts. The lenofth of the tarsier's ankle is due to the increased size of the calcanear and navicular bones: THE SPECTRE TARSIER 3 a Structural modification found also in the oralaofoes and mouse lemurs, but noivhere else amongst the inammalia. In other groups of leaping animals the same end — lengthening of the limb — is attained by- other means. Thus the jerboa rat of Algeria has the metatarsal bones (those immediately below the ankle) fused together into a single rod, as in birds. The first and fifth digits have actually disappeared, while the lower ends of the metatarsals (fusion not being quite complete) are provided with facets which articulate with the bones of the second, third, and fourth toes. The Cape leaping "hare" has both foot and toe bones elongated, but not those of the ankle. In the kano-aroos both the lower lee and the foot (but again not the ankle) are lengthened. Curiously enough, the common frog of our English meadows has the ankle elongated in tarsier fashion^: an amphibian, cold-blooded and aquatic, thus shares this character with a warm-blooded arboreal mammal. Doubtless the elongated bones not only- increase the tarsier's length of leap, but also by their elasticity modify the shock of alighting. In our- selves, at any rate, even the small bones and ligaments of the foot by their number and resilience effectually act as buffers : this may be readily demonstrated by allowing oneself to alight first on the heels (shock transmitted direct to calcaneum)and 1 111 the frog's ankle, however, it is tlie cah-aneniii and the astrarjalas (not the navicular bone) which incxeases in length. 4 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS then on the toes (shock modified by bones and liga- ments of digits and plantar arch). A curious anatomical feature of the tarsier seems to have hitherto escaped the notice of naturalists. On examining the inside of the ear in a museum specimen one notices a number of transverse ridges situated on the upper part of the pinna. These probably indicate bundles of muscular fibres which in the allied galagoes are so powerful that the animal can actually fold up its ear as a sailor reefs a sail. A careful dissection of the human subject indicates that vestiges of these fibres exist also in man: they are limited to a few bundles of tissue — transverse muscle of anatomists- — and are of no functional importance. The colour of the tarsier varies. As a rule the general body hue is brownish fawn paling to yellowish grey below; a reddish tinge ornaments the forehead and cheeks, while a blackish ring round each orbit accentuates the weird expression of the eyes. Some individuals, however, are chestnut, others dusky brown. The Bancan tarsier, founded on a specimen obtained in the woods near the Jeboos tin mines by Dr. Horsfield in i8 13-14 was, as pointed out by Temminck, only a young individual (yearling) of the Tarsms spectrum. Temminck presented to Cuvier a specimen of the tarsier pre- served in alcohol ; the mammal catalogue of the Paris Museum, published in 1851, mentions another THE SPECTRE TARSIER 5 (male) specimen from the collection of the Stadt- holder of Holland. The tarsier was first so named by Buffon, in allusion to the elongation of the tarsus or ankle. He, however, compared it to the jerboa which, although leaping over the ground much as a tarsier might do, has the lower extremities constructed, as we have seen, on a totally different plan : the calcanear and navicular bones (especially the latter) of the jerboa are mere fragments. Pennant likewise styled the tarsier the " woolly gerboa." MM, Geoff- roy St. Hilaire and Cuvier published a memoir on the tarsier in the Magasin Encyclop^diqzie for 1795. In 1824 we find the tarsier figured in Dr. Horsfield's "Zoological Researches," the plate being drawn by William Daniell from a young specimen in the East India Company's museum and formerly the property of Sir Stamford Raffles. Apparently the artist contented himself with reproducing the likeness of the actual dried specimen before him, without endea- vouring to "restore" its probable appearance during life. One finds this scrupulous over-exactness common in old works of natural history, since the drawings of the majority of the earlier artists seem to have been made directly from specimens mounted in the not very successful style of the ante-Victorian taxidermists. A tarsier preserved in spirits of wine was presented by Sir Stamford Raffles to the Zoo- logical Society : it had been obtained in Sumatra, 6 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS and was long exhibited in the Bruton Street museum. Spirit specimens are only second in value to live ones; since all necessary measurements can be taken from them. Even the contour of the muscles (allowance being made for shrinking due to the action of the spirit) can be approximately deduced ; but the weight of such examples is probably less than that of living ones, since the dehydrating action of the preservative causes the tissues to be poorer in the watery constituents which it necessarily extracts. In 1837 Mr, H. Cuming presented to the Zoological Society's museum a female tarsier and a young one not more than a few weeks (or perhaps days) old, so that the Society was well equipped for the study of these quaint lemurs. An excellent figure of the tarsier will be found in Cassell's Natural History (Second Edition). The animal is represented as standing semi-erect on the ground, with one hand outstretched to grasp a beetle crawling over a leaf. Both beetle and leaf give an approximate idea of the size of the tarsier : such valuable adjuncts are too often neglected by artists, who sometimes give no guide at all to the size of the animals they figure, woodenly drawing mouse and mammoth, rabbit and rorqual on the same scale! Mr. Cuming directed his specimen to be displayed in a standing position and inclined forward, as if about to spring. At the present day, good taxidermy and improved draught- manship have given us an excellent idea of the THE SPECTRE TARSIER Spectre tarsier, and in the Manchester Museum there is a female example well mounted in the life-like attitude suggested by Cuming; while the Liverpool collection also includes a tarsier carefully set up in the same way. Dr. Guillemard in his " Cruise of the Marchesa " has figured one of these lemurs as creeping on all fours along a branch, with ears erect and tensely curved tail. This attitude is illustrated by the dark-coloured specimen in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, though it has been set up much too stiffly and the tail and hind legs have been much distorted in mounting. The Leyden Museum possesses a magnificent series of tarsiers of all ages and both sexes — twenty in all of these rare lemurs, including nine preserved in alcohol ; the Dutch naturalists seem to have ransacked the Archipelagoes for specimens. The series includes specimens from Banca (Teysmann collection, 1872), from the Kapouas River, S.E. Borneo (Schwaner), from Java (Neeb), from the island of Sanghi between Celebes and Mindanao (Hoedt) and from the island of Saleyer south of Celebes (Reinwardt). So far museum specimens. Unfortunately, the tarsier has never been brought alive to England, and, although kept as a pet in its native country, is tamed chiefly by the Malays. Its nocturnal habits and acknowledged rarity militate greatly against any European naturalist making a prolonged study of it. The only observer who has been able to give a fairly O NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS full account of the "malmag" seems to have been Mr. Cuming, who, in 1837, possessed one which had been taken in the woods of Jagna, in Bohol, one of the Philippine Islands. This specimen gave birth to a young one, and the mother and young were the two afterwards presented to the Zoological Society's museum. Mr. Cuming found the spectre tarsier to be very cleanly in its habits, never returning to half- eaten food nor even drinking a second time from the same water. It preferred a diet of lizards, but would also take shrimps and cockroaches, especially if they were alive : perhaps these were individual tastes, since the tarsier which the natives of Celebes brought to the yacht " Marchesa" refused to eat cockroaches at all and died on the third day. The tarsier is easily tamed, and then likes to be caressed, climbing about its owner's person and licking his hands and face. Usually silent, this animal, according to Mr. Cuming, occasionally utters a single sharp cry which is not repeated. In the wild state the spectre tarsier spends nearly all the daytime asleep inside hollow trees or under the roots of bamboos. At night it is active, leaping from boucrh to bougrh in search of food. When eating it sits upright like a squirrel ; when drinking it laps slowly like a cat, which animal it also resembles in frequently carrying its young in its mouth. These queer youngsters do not, however, require much maternal guidance, since at two days old they can THE SPECTRE TARSIER 9 climb without aid. Usually there is only one at a birth, sometimes two. Tarsiers wander about in pairs like the galagoes, and it is said that when one of them is taken the capture of its mate may be con- fidently predicted in a very short time. In this connection it will be remembered that the bush baby or maholi galago — an allied African species — is often taken in pairs by the bushveld Boers. The present species excellently exemplifies the uncertainty which attends the study of rare animals. In the first place its haunts are situated in a region of the globe — Malaysia — remote from scientific investigation. Secondly, it is nocturnal — hence less likely to be met with than a daylight species. Thirdly, it is of small size, therefore less conspicuous than a larger animal would be, and easily lost in the tangled brakes of the jungle. Fourthly, it is arboreal — difficult to find when asleep, or to capture when awake. Fifthly, it is rare even in the remote localities which it is known to inhabit ; while some of the natives, instead of petting it like those animal-lovers, the Malays, regard it with superstitious dread. According to Professor Schleofel the Sumatrans believe that the tarsier — once the size of a lion — will cause misfortune to befall if it shows itself on a tree near their ricefields — "een ongeluk zal overkomen waneer er zich een op een boom in de nabijheed von hunne rijsvelden vertoont." Although, of course, Europeans do not TO NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS share this feeling, they are but few as compared with the native population, hence less likely to meet with the tarsier. Lastly, even if interested in Zoology, few of these few Europeans are naturalists trained to minute observation and in the right methods of searching for and collecting speci- mens. One thus understands the rarity of this little lemur in most museums, and its total absence from European Zoos; perhaps one should rather wonder that so many skin-specimens have been obtained. Small marvel is it that even the professional dealers, who by means of agents abroad supply specimens for collections, are frequently unable to obtain examples of a specially-desired animal, even after persevering efforts. Bullock's famous museum took seventeen years to collect, and cost him ^30,000. The Derby Museum at Liverpool was the fruits of sixty years' patient harvesting. Our own National Collection is the "long result of time," so also that of the Jardin des Plantes, the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfort ; so indeed with all. The little tarsier is one of the most interesting of museum desiderata, for its aberrant structure and quaint appearance rank it high amongst nature's curiosities. Staring eyes, elfin face, stilted ankles, sweeping tail; it would be difficult to find a more extraordinary little creature, whether in or out of a story-book. THE VAMPIRE BAT. "Like the bat of Indian brakes His pinions fan the wounds he makes, And soothing thus the sufferer's pain He draws the Hfe blood from the vein." Lines quoted by an M.P. (? Mr. T. P. O^ Connor) in the House of Commons, March 75, IQOJ. The well known motto in oinnia paratus receives frequent illustration amongst animals : they are armed at all points for the battle of life. The musk ox of Greenland carries a pair of stout horns for defence and is clothed in a thick overcoat of wool and hair, while its broad hoofs carry it safely over the frozen snow. The European mole, clad in a pliable suit of natural velvet, easily traverses its underground galleries and performs wonderful feats of engineering with its spade-like hands. The un- tidy tree porcupine of Canada climbs well and easily, aided by its prehensile tail, while its uncouth outlines protect it by simulating, when high up in the branches^ a ragged last year's bird's nest. The porpoise hunts the teeming herring of the North sea, its mammalian intelligence and fish-like body rendering it more than a match for them as the trap-like jaws open and shut amongst their silvery myriads. One may regard carnivorous animals of all classes — mammal, bird, reptile — as highly organised machines, modified in every way for assimilating animal food ; amongst 12 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS these forms one may also reckon a few which habitually subsist on fluid nutriment, and indeed are so specially adapted for this diet that they starve if they cannot obtain it. Truth is stranger than fiction ; such remarkable beings are found even amongst the mammalia. They live entirely on fresh- drawn blood, and are known as vampire bats. Two species of true vampire are known: the vampire par excellence being the larger of the two and inhabiting Central and part of South America. The vampire bat (Desmodtis rufus) measures but three inches in length (head and body) and two and a half in length of forearm : it is thus by no means the terrible monster which one would have supposed, beinor but little laroer than the noctule bat of the o o British Islands. The muzzle is short, conical, and surmounted by a small leaf of specialised skin. The fur of the back is thick and somewhat long. The wings are quite transparent anteriorly, more opaque in their posterior two-thirds. A well-developed opaque patagium unites the forearm with the shoulder. There is no tail and no spur on the ankle to support the interfemoral membrane, which is very short. The colour of this bat is reddish brown (often tinged with ashy grey) above, yellowish brown below; it is readily distinguished from its smaller congener by its superior size and by the total absence of the ankle-spur. Thus the desmodus is not at all remarkable in appearance; many harmless THE VAMPIRE BAT 1 3 Species present a far more forbidding exterior. The mastiff muzzle of the molossus bat, the distorted head of the tomb bat, or the bare puckered skin of the naked bat, are far more repulsive and hideous. Harmless species indeed are often remarkable by reason of the nose- or chin-leaves on their faces. These tags of skin are supposed to exert a tactile function, like the whiskers of a cat : in the flower-nosed bat of the Solomon Islands they attain the acme of development, the face of this singular creature being masked by a rosette of crumpled skin which extends upwards as far as the eyes. Con- trasted with these strange creatures the vampire seems a commonplace and almost homely little beast. Cum litis non facit inonachum. The internal structure of Desmodus in,tfus amply atones in interest for the dull exterior which would cause many to pass it by unheeded. To begin with, the teeth are highly specialised for the purpose of bloodletting. Molars are useless to an animal which never chews, hence they are but rudimentary in the lesser vampire and absent in the desmodus. On the other hand this nocturnal surgeon requires a lancet for cutting the skin; hence the upper in- cisor teeth are reduced in number, increased in size, and sharp-edged like chisels. The canine or eye teeth are large and sharply-pointed, and even the rudimentary premolars are trenchant, working against each other. When the mouth is closed the 14 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS sharp edges of the upper incisors fit neatly into a hollow in the lower jaw, just as the blade of a penknife sinks into its sheath. The mouth of the vampire is a veritable case of surgical instruments, keen-edged if not aseptic. As regards the mode of action, it has been established that the bat rasps the skin rather than bites it, and thus planes off a minute shaving and causes the blood to ooze from the capillaries. It has also been thought that the animal uses the sharp canines as augers, boring gradually deeper as it flutters round and round ; but this requires confirma- tion. The toes and nose in man and the withers and haunches in cattle appear to be the usual points of attack. A remarkable statement as regards the vampire, namely, that it is difficult to stop the bleeding set up by it, offers an opening to any naturalist keen on original research. Mere capillary oozing can usually be arrested by firm pressure on the part; hence per- haps there is some haemolytic constituent in the bat's saliva which prevents the formation of a clot. At any rate the pharynx of the leech formerly used in medicine contains such an agent, which can be ex- tracted by chemical means, and even as a pharma- ceutical preparation will effectually hinder the coagulation of fresh-drawn blood placed in a test- tube. That such a constituent should exist is reasonable enough, for it is of the utmost importance to the bat that its food should be absolutely fluid; its THE VAMPIRE BAT 1 5 gullet is of SO small a bore (barely admitting a stout bristle) that it would probably be unable to swallow even minute clots. The stomach moreover is of the simplest construction; instead of being subglobular as in ordinary bats it is long and narrow, like a loop of the intestine with which it is directly continuous. A specimen of the true vampire, beautifully dissected to show these details, is now preserved in the Royal Colleo-e of Suro^eons' Museum. The vampire bat became known to Europeans unpleasantly soon after the conquest of South America. Peter Martyr mentions their attacks on men and cattle in the Isthmus of Darien. Condamine in the eighteenth century noted their destructiveness, which entirely frustrated the efforts of the mission- aries to introduce cattle amongst the natives ; while according to Sir R. Schomburgh, the natives of Wicki were unable to keep fowls, which the bats destroyed by attacking their combs. Especially abundant in the valley of the Amazon, the vampire spends the daytime in holes and hollows of trees, issuing forth at twilight to search for victims.^ So plentiful are (or were) these bloodsuckers that they constitute, as in the days of Condamine, a real 1 Bats when han<,ang suspended in the daytime are very interestinf; to ■watch. Some African fruit bats ( Cyonycteris collaris), recently studied by the writer, \i\uv^ in a chister of six from the roof of their cage, swayinj,' j^ently like a Inmdle of withered leaves, with occasional move- ments of heads and ears. Each individual would from time to time stretch a wing, shaking it like a young bird with a rapid shivering move- ment. They cleaned tlieir wings l)y passing the edges through their jaws and would also lick each other's fur. 1 6 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS dano-er to the stock of horse- and cattle-owners ; for though each bat take but a few ounces, repeated attacks by the besiegers rapidly weaken the unfortunate animals. According to Mr. Wallace, about 7,000 cattle were said to have been destroyed by bats in six months on the island of Mexicana, the myriads of desmodus reducing some of them to a most miserable condition. The bats were accordingly shot in great numbers ; they may also be trapped by using a live dog as bait. Dr. Tschudi kept his mule free from them by smearing it with an ointment composed of camphor, petroleum and soap ; bats do not like the smell of this unguent, which is hence largely used to deter them. Save for this blood- sucking propensity, the vampire is interesting enough. The swarms which at sunset flit through the woods and darkened fields should possess considerable attraction for the naturalist. The writer remembers watching with pleasure some years ago the evolutions of a number of harmless Old World bats as they flew silhouetted in black against the clear sky of Africa ; and in the study of these animals much yet remains to be done. The very abundance of the South American cheiroptera long hindered the recognition of the desmodus as the true bloodsucking vampire. Various harmless species have been accused of this eerie propensity. Even so accomplished a naturalist as Charles Waterton, who made several journeys into THE VAMPIRE BAT 1 7 the wilds of Brazil, erroneously supposed the short nosed artibeus to be the culprit. This bat certainly has a conical muzzle and is tailless ; but it has a broader face than the true desmodus, and its denti- tion is not so highly specialised. Then again the soricine bat (Glossophaga soHcina) was supposed to be addicted to bloodletting, the roughened tongue beine reg-arded as the instrument of attack. It was found, however, that this bat uses the tongue to scoop out the pulp of fruit and not to rasp the human skin ; hence the term "soricine bloodsucker" applied to it by the late Dr. J. E. Gray is quite unsuitable. Another suspected species was the javelin bat or {^r-A&-\A.wQ.^ (Phyllostoma kastatum)'. Mr. Bates, who caught one in Brazil, supposed this animal to be sanguinivorous, but a dissection of a spirit specimen will demonstrate that it does not possess the modified alimentary canal that is associated with such a diet. Lastly, the spectre vampire (Vampirus specti^m) has been asserted to live on blood ; an examination of its teeth will promptly settle the question. Mr. Bates, who opened the stomachs of several spectre vampires, found them full of fruit-pulp and seeds, and was thus able to clear up a little of this natural history tangle. All the above species are, however, technically classed as vampires, though they may not 1 Not to 1)6 confused with the Jamaican fer-de-lance, a venomous though useful serpent which preys on the rats infestinjj: the suojar canes. Tlie pliyllostoma is of conspicuous size, and its large body would (juite till the hand. 1 8 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS live on blood. One thus notes a curious paradox- there are harmless vampires, just as there are flight- less birds, and fishes which, like the African Periop- thalmus, habitually leave the water for the shore. It should nevertheless be borne in mind that of the very numerous bats classed as vampires a few species may occasionally vary their diet with blood : normally, however, their food consists of fruit or of insects taken on the wing. Insectivorous bats have a well- developed steering membrane uniting the tail and hindleofs into a kind of kite-rudder ; the true desmo- dus, it w411 be remembered, has no tail at all and scarcely any interfemoral membrane. In spite of its abundance no example of the true vampire seems to have been brought alive to England. There would appear to be little difficulty in doing this, provided that the bats were accompanied en route by living animals capable of acting as hosts. The South American cattle trade would doubtless admit of this, and the bats would certainly be an interestinsT addition to the Zoolo^jical Gardens.-^ For another reason also, the arrival of a boxful of these desmodus would be very acceptable to English naturalists ; for it would then be possible to carefully and methodically search the salivary glands for any ferment that might hinder the coagulation of blood. 1 Since tlie viiinpire ranj^es to the very seashore fine healtliy specimens might be obtained by travellers on the very point of departure for England. A specimen was taken in 1847 at Valparaiso and another in the Baie de Piscadoros, I'eru, on November 16, 1867. THE VAMPIRE BAT 1 9 The alleged difficulty of stopping the bleeding caused by this bat would be amply explained by the dis- covery of such an agent. This research miorht be conducted as follows. The salivary glands of several recently killed vam- pires having been removed, minced, and pounded up in a small mortar, the crushed fragments might be digested with cold water or treated with a 2 °/o aqueous solution of sodium bicarbonate. The ex- tract thus obtained could then be tried on rats or guinea pigs, or indeed on the experimenter's own finger! Probably the first method would be as successful as any, since the extract obtained from the pharynx of the leech (probably secreted by the buccal epithelium) can readily be obtained by digesting in water; it acts powerfully though not permanently on the blood of dogs and rabbits, producing constitutional symptoms, and is eliminated by the kidneys. Leech extract has not yet been obtained in isolated form, though it is soluble not only in water but also in saline solutions. Alcohol, ether, and chloroform all fail, however, to dissolve it. Then, again, snake venom and even the poisonous substance in eels' blood prevent the formation of clots. As regards the second method, one must re- member that tryptic pancreas ferment dissolved in glycerine will, when injected into the blood of an animal, afterwards prevent the coagulation of the 20 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS shed blood. Peptone also (or the albumoses adhering to it) injected into the blood-stream (•5 gram per kilo according to Schmidt Miilheim) will prevent clotting in dogs, but not in rabbits, a substance being formed in the plasma, and many of the white blood corpuscles beinof dissolved. Now when one recollects that histologically the pancreas is but an immense salivary gland, the probability of the vampire saliva containing a hsemolytic agent is distinctly increased; for it may contain a body analagous to the tryptic ferment of the pancreas already mentioned. This research is of considerable academic interest, and perhaps also of practical value, since it may be possible to discover some improved method of dealing with the bites ot vampires. In this connection it is well to remember how Science by attacking the apparently insignificant mosquito has lessened the ravages of malaria, and how the recent study of the tse tse fly (itself a bane to cattle) has been the key to the study of the sleeping sickness of Uganda. The lower animals deserve serious attention, from the indirect influence they may exercise upon man. The plague-stricken rat, the oyster which spreads typhoid, and the blowfly that transmits blood-poisoning cannot with impunity be left out of account; hence it may be far from unprofitable for some experienced naturalist to prosecute with skilled enthusiasm the study of the brown harpy of the Amazon forests — the vampire bat. THE FLYING LEMUR. The coloration of certain predaceous mammals probably benefits them by rendering them incon- spicuous; they are thus able with greater facility to ambush their prey. The facial markings of tiger-cats and paradoxures doubtless serve to (literally) mask their stealthy advance upon their victims. The reddish coat of the Sumatran bush- dog renders it inconspicuous in the twilight thicket. The white fox steals unheeded upon the lemming in the Arctic snow. Conversely, the colours of their victims are a set off to these advantages; animals which are preyed upon by others possess in their tints and markings a valuable system of life insur- ance. The stone-coloured bharal sheep, high in the alpine glens of Sikkim, is protected by its slate-grey coat from the pursuit of the snow leopard, itself gray- robed and inconspicuous. The red hartebeest antelopes pasture in gallant array amid giant anthills compacted of red earth. The dull-witted sloth hangs from the branches of the giant cecropia, being not only invisible from its dun colour but exhibiting between the shoulders an orange-tinted patch which 2 2 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS simulates the stump of a broken branch. Then again the cobegoes or flying lemurs of the East Indies and Philippine Islands are another instance of colour-protection. The common cobego or flying lemur {Galeopithecus volans) — also called colugo and kaguan — is about the size of a cat and measures twenty-five inches in total length, the head and body together taping sixteen inches. A specimen now before me has the head small and pointed, with small eyes and ears, and a few slender whiskers about the muzzle. The incisor teeth are most remarkable, being compressed from before backwards and expanded laterally; those in the lower jaw are so deeply cusped as to be comb- like, and have very narrow bases. The outer upper incisors are double rooted — a curious circumstance unique amongst mammals — while under the tongue is a rudiment of the lemurine sublingua briefly noticed when describing the spectre tarsier. The cobego is further noteworthy in the possession of a well-developed fold of skin, which unites the fore and hind limbs and can be expanded like the para- chute of a flying squirrel. A well-marked patagium, partly cutaneous, partly muscular, connects the fore- limb with the neck, while even the fingers and toes are webbed for three-quarters their length. The tail is encased in a well-developed steering mem- brane. Such an extraordinary being, half bat, half lemur, seems a survival of antediluvian times when THE FLYING LEMUR 23 earth and air were alive with crawling ramphorynchi and gliding pterodactyls.-^ The coloration of the flying lemur is admirably adapted to harmonise with the bark of the tree to which it clings. The ground tint is of two types, grey and olive brown ; it will probably be found that the lighter-coloured individuals frequent drier situations than their fellows. Various irregular spots and dashes of white are scattered over the beautiful soft fur, especially on the outsides of the limbs and on the lateral parachute. These not only smarten up the animal's appearance but also simu- late spots of mould or mildew. The general hue of the cobego's coat quite suggests a piece of bark more or less spotted with fungi or flecked with lichen ; my own specimen has a handsome triangular patch of white on the forehead with the apex of the triangle towards the nose. The under parts are pinkish. The spots on the fur tend to disappear with age. Museum specimens have the ears and palms black- brown, but in living cobego they are said to be pink. Mr. Waterhouse in 1839 separated the Galeopitliecus philippinensis from its better known congener by reason of its narrower head, longer ears, and broader muzzle ; but although two species of flying lemur have been recognised for the purposes of this book 1 Ramphorynchi and pterodactyls were Oolite lizards capable of spurious nif,dit like the little tree-tlragons found to-day in Java. A young cobego with its curious liead, naked skin, and parachute vividly recalls the pterodactyl as restored by geologists. The late Edward Newman even suggested that pterodactyls were of mammalian not reptilian nature ! 24 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS they will be considered as geographical races of the same animal, thus following the arrangement of the Leyden Museum.^ These creatures, then, are of nocturnal habit; they pass the daytime asleep, suspended from a lofty bough with all four feet together, and in this strange topsy-turvy attitude much resemble a large fruit. They have also been observed clinging motionless hour after hour to tree trunks. Cobego are said in Java to frequent isolated hills with an abundant growth of young trees ; in the Malay peninsula they similarly live in the densest and most inaccessible jungles. At night the flying lemur becomes lively, running up the tree trunks and continually stopping with a jerk ; probably this is to baffle any possible enemy, since by such abrupt pauses the cobego, mottled and silent, would seem to have vanished into the substance of the tree!^ In addition to these gymnastics, the flying lemur leaps fearlessly from considerable heights, and, buoyed up by its expanded membranes, may sail obliquely for some hundred yards before it reaches another tree. The tail probably acts as a rudder and may modify the shock 1 This institution is remarkable for its rich series of cobego, consisting of twenty mounted specimens and nine preserved in alcohol. The skele- ton of a female obtained from Java in 1S64 is also in the collection. It seems after all doubtful -vvhether tliere is more than one species of tlying lemur, the Dutch naturalists, with their abundant material, making no distinction, while a skull received by the Royal College of Surgeons, per Mr. Cuming, from the Philippines, was actually referred to the eommun species by the late Sir W. H. Flower. 2 The writer has noticed that the Indian palm si^uirrel makes .similar stoppages when running over a floor. THE FLYING LEMUR 25 of alighting. These animals carry their young with them, clinging to the fur of the mother. Young cobego (two only are born at a time) are blind, naked and wrinkled, recalling the half-finished appearance of a young kangaroo; their parachutes and skinny heads also remind one of the hammer- headed bat of West Africa. When at rest the female clings upside down in the usual fashion, suppporting her infant in a kind of pouch formed by the incurved tail and its attached membrane. The tail is said to have prehensile powers, a statement to be borne in mind by those naturalists who follow Blyth and assert that Asia possesses but one arboreal placental mammal with a prehensile tail — the binturong or bear cat.^ The cobego was they^/zV volans terneata of Seba, who published his museum catalogue in 1734-65. Pallas in 1780 (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg) also mentions the galeopithecus. A specimen of the "flying colugo Galeopithecus volans, extremely rare" fetched £\. is. as lot 49 (second series) at the sale of Sir Ashton Lever's museum (May- July, 1806); while Javan examples (now in the National Collection) were obtained by Dr. Horsfield, who used this species amongst others for his classical experiments on the 1 Colonel Tickell, the well-known Indian naturalist, has left a diawin*;- which represents a cobego just leaving a tree. The tail is markedly flexed. 26 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS upas poison.^ A few words may here be devoted to the upas tree, so indispensable to poets and orators. Owing to the exaggerations alleged to have been published by Foersch, a Dutch surgeon, in 1783, the upas tree {Upas Antiar) was formerly credited with most deadly properties. It was supposed to exhale a deadly vapour that killed every living thing in its neighbourhood ; the valley where it flourished being a veritable cemetery of animals slain by the emana- tions of the tree. No bird could roost in its branches : the collection of the sap was a task only fit for con- demned criminals who by undertaking it escaped further punishment. With a view to investigating these stories Horsfield made seventeen experiments on animals, including six on the cobego. The poison, made into a thin paste with water, was dried and inserted on a bamboo dart into a wound simultaneously made. Sometimes the fresh sap was used instead of the paste. Laborious respiration, dizziness, drowsiness, feeble pulse, and spasms of the abdominal and pectoral muscles resulted; the action of the upas poison is thus similar to that of the nux vomica plant from which strychnine is prepared. Unless actually absorbed into the system the upas poison is no more dangerous than any other vegetable solution; Dr. Horsfield showed that 1 " An Essay on the oopas or poison tree of Java," Asiatic Journal, vols. i. and ii"., 1813. THE FLYING LEMUR 2"] birds roosted safely in its branches, and that even the sap required boiling before it exerted its full effect. The deadly valley of Java, famed for its fatal results on animals, owed its lethal action, not to the upas which grew in it, but to the exhalations of car- bonic acid gas that escaped from the soil. Nay, more, there can be little doubt that the upas poison might, as a pharmaceutical preparation, be bene- ficially employed in medicine ; witness the allied nux vomica, which as the official Tinctura Nucis Votnict^ or the equally well-known Liquor StrychnincB Hydrochloratis is to be found in every chemist's shop. The poet Darwin's lines : — Alone in silence on the blasted heath Fell Upas stands, the hydra tree of death, only serve to perpetuate the absurd fable of Foersch. To the flying lemur, then, science owes a debt, the individuals martyred by Horsfield having together with the other animals employed conclusively demonstrated the physiological action of this famous poison. Although the cobego has been known for a very long time to Europeans, and is relatively abundant near that great wild beast mart, Singapore, no living specimen has yet been brought to England. Easily taken in nets or captured by cutting down the tree, this meek creature may be seized with the hand and has never been known to bite ; it will eat plantains 28 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS and cocoanut leaves, nibbling the latter into bits and possibly straining out the coarser fibres between its comb-like incisors. It is said to be a delicate beast liable to take cold ; but so is the slender loris of Ceylon, which is imported every year. It is there- fore to be hoped that a living cobego will some day be safely landed in England, a task which might be successfully accomplished under intelligent care, reinforced by a plentiful supply of bananas or of young cocoanuts which would ripen en route. To see a flying lemur hang suspended in its natural fur cloak, to see it run up a branch, and to hear it quack like a duck, would be as great an attraction as a live gorilla, porpoise, or musk ox, and would rival in interest any of the numerous zoological treasures which have been exhibited durino- the longr life of the Regent's Park Gardens.^ In the meantime, stuffed specimens of the cobego may be studied in the various museums. A well- modelled example of the grey variety, mounted as if clinging to a tree trunk, may be seen in the National Collection. The pose of the bird-like head and cat- like body seem to leave nothing to be desired, and on studying this specimen one can well under- stand the advantages of protective coloration to a defenceless species like the present. Professor Schlegel in his " Dierentuin van het Koninklijk 1 One could not j,Miarantee that it \\o\\\A flij, XXxow^x in a roomy apart- ment ; even l)ats in cantivity are very intlolent in this respect, since it is no longer needful for tliem to hunt for food. THE FLYING LEMUR 29 Zoologisch Genootschap Natura Artis Magistra Amsterdam " has published an excellent woodcut of the "vliegende maki." The animal in its mottled cloak seems to be just rousing from slumber and is slowly climbing, still upside down, along a slender branch. The artist having made the most of the scanty vibrissae has given rather a rat- like appearance to the head ; the webbed membranous feet are excellently rendered. Dr. Horsfield's specimens, at first located in the East India Com- pany's Museum in Leadenhall Street, were afterwards transferred to the National Collection; other examples are now in the Derby Museum at Liverpool and in the Manchester Museum, Owens College. An interesting specimen — a young cobego preserved in spirit — was presented many years ago to the Zoo- logical Society by Mr. J. C. Hoffman, and is perhaps identical with that now in the Royal College of Surgeons' Museum. This last-named example (recently examined by the writer) is now of a grey colour all over, naked, and with the parachute very wrinkled, while the head is much elongated, narrow- ing down to a blunt muzzle. This ugly duckling may be compared with the handsome adult specimen, brilliantly tinged with orange like a flying squirrel, which is preserved in spirit close by; the great contrast between them reminds one of the fish-like tadpole and the air-breathing frog, of the fat green caterpillar and the soaring emperor butterfly. One 30 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS is grotesque, pseudo-reptilian, almost unearthly ; the other is an attractive and indeed beautiful animal. Perhaps, however, the orange tint in the fur of the adult is due to the prolonged action of the spirit; just as museum specimens of the lime hawk moth become reddish after a time. In taking leave of the Hying lemur one is again reminded of the usefulness (or otherwise) of the lower animals to man, as pointed out in the essay on the vampire bat ; by this, is not, of course, meant domes- tic animals, whose value is undoubted. The rare and little-known cobego has yielded its contribution to scientific progress in the matter of the upas juice, just as in the hands of Charles Waterton the Brazilian sloth demonstrated the effects of the curare poison used in Indian blowpipes. The study of zoology offers a boundless field to the patient worker, and a thousand paths await his feet. Ardttus ad so km ! thp: home of the elephant shrew. THE ELEPHANT SHREW. Late in the afternoon of June 20th, 1903, the writer stood on the dismantled ruins of the old Turkish fort at Biskra. Far away on either hand stretched the African desert, a sullen expanse, dim grey to the interminable horizon. Leagues of rolling sand dunes, masses of rugged purplish rocks, chains of salt water marshes lay afar in the darkening wilderness : it was a country of savage desolation and utterly wild, yet possessing in spite of all drawbacks a romantic charm of its own. Although prosecuted under considerable diffi- culties, scientific research in the Sahara has yielded many interesting trophies to the labours of the naturalist. Amongst larger game may be mentioned the addax antelope, the bubaline hartebeest, and the northern ostrich: amongst lesser quarry, bustards and eazelles. A host of small creatures also flourish in these remote wildernesses. Jerboa rats, long- lesfgfed and nimble, course in dozens over the arid plains; gerbilles — graceful counterparts of the jer- boas— harbour in the sand or hop over its surface like tiny kangaroos. The ugly dabb or uromastix lizard, with a head like a tortoise and a tail like a flattened file, haunts the dunes; the hout el erdth or skink glides — a flash of bronze — through the noon- day sand. The hot springs of Biskra shelter 32 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS cyprinodon fishes, and the oases of M'zab are a refuge for the grey palm rat. Few denizens of the Sahara, however, are more remarkable than the jumping or elephant shrew. V The Algerian elephant shrew [Macroscelides 7'ozeti) — -far el keil of the Arabs, rat a tro77ipe of the French colonists — is about the size of a small rat. Large-eyed and large-eared, it is remarkable for its long legs and tail, which cause it to super- ficially resemble the jerboa of the same regions; the tawny colour of the fur in both animals is also noteworthy. An examination of the teeth, however, soon demonstrates that there is no true relationship between the two. The incisors of the shrew— red on the anterior surface— are pointed and hence suit- able for seizing forceps-like small active prey, such as insects; those of the jerboa are true rodent shape, squared like a chisel and fitted for gnawing or rasping vegetable substances. The most remarkable feature of the elephant shrew is the strange elonga- tion of the snout into an actual proboscis, flexible like the trunk of a tapir and bearing the nostrils at the end. This trunk is probably a tactile organ, since the long hairs or vibrissae are well developed near the tip; it is used for rooting in the sand, and is possibly prehensile. The strange parallelism between shrew and jerboa — not relationship as we have just seen — has, doubtless, been produced by a similarity of environ- THE ELEPHANT SHREW 33 ment. Both are inhabitants of the Sahara, a happy- hunting ground for predaceous birds and venomous snakes and scorpions. Large eyes and ears are in both cases necessary for a nocturnal animal which in the obscurity of night must ever be on the alert to recognise food or to ward off danger. Length of limb conduces to speed — hence safety by flight — while the tawny coloration confers invisibility by harmonising with the sand and stones of the desert. The trunk of the shrew is, of course, a special development not paralleled by the jerboa. It seems possible that this strange outward re- semblance, whether one class it as an instance of true mimicry or not, may benefit one if not both of the parties concerned. Jerboas are relatively abundant (being frequently imported into England as pets) ; the elephant shrew is very scarce and local even in the localities which it inhabits. Hence if the shrews are less fleet than the jerboas they might escape detection amongst their swarming rodent companions, and a half-hearted pursuer mistaking a slow-footed macroscelides for a nimble jerboa might prematurely abandon the chase. This suggestion gains weight from the fact that other instances of insectivores mimicking rodents are known. The Asiatic tupaias or tree shrews simulate squirrels in their rodent-like attitudes and bushy tails; doubtless it is advantageous to them to be mistaken for such active animals as squirrels. 34 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS Were it not for the rarity of the jumping shrews one might suggest that the resemblance conversely benefits the jerboas also; for like many insectivores the macroscelides exhales a musky odour which may render it distasteful to its enemies. A young hawk or owl that had in its inexperience seized a nauseous shrew might afterwards {having once learnt a lesson) unwittingly spare a toothsome jerboa. One cites in support of this theory the reversed mimicry of insectivore by rodent seen in the tupaia-like squirrels of Burmah, Borneo, and Sumatra.^ Such analogies must not, however, be pressed too far. In cases of undoubted mimicry it is always the luiinicked species which is abundant, which would not be the case with a jerboa copying a shrew. Besides, the musky odour of the common English shrew "mouse" does not prevent it from being killed by dogs and cats. Sparingly distributed throughout North-Western Africa, the elephant shrew is nowhere common. M. Parzudaki's collection contained two examples taken in Oran and afterwards acquired by the British Museum. Canon Tristram in i860 recorded it from 1 On tlie same day (February 8tli, 1875) there arrived at the London Zooloffical Gardens two curious animals, both new to the collection. Tliey were a tree slirew {Tujwui pctjiiiina) presented by tiie Hon. Ashley Eden, C.S.I., of Rangoon, British Burmah, and a Blandfords sijuirrel {^ciurus blandfurdi) presented by Mrs, Dunn. These were placed in the same cage, the scjuinel e.xliibiting a marvellous resemblance to the tupaia. Perhaps this was a case of true mimicry. The tree shrew was believed to lie the first tupaia of any species to reach Europe alive. Another instance of mimicry is seen in Everett's s