and blotches, resembles closely the colour of mottled bark, and no doubt helps to
protect it. 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 alighted 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. Like the Cuscus of the Moluccas, the
Galeopithecus feeds chiefly on leaves, and possesses a very voluminous stomach
and long convoluted intestines. The brain is very small, and the animal possesses
such remarkable tenacity of life, that it is exceedingly difficult to kill it by any
ordinary means. The tail is prehensile; and is probably made use of as an
additional support while feeding. It is said to have only a single young one at a
time, and my own observation confirms this statement, for I once shot a female
with a very small blind and naked little creature clinging closely to its breast,
which was quite bare and much wrinkled, reminding me of the young of
Marsupials, to which it seemed to form a transition. On the back, and extending
over the limbs and membrane, the fur of these animals is short, but exquisitely
soft, resembling in its texture that of the Chinchilla.
I returned to Palembang by water, and while staying a day at a village while a
boat was being made watertight, I had the good fortune to obtain a male, female,
and young bird of one of the large hornbills. I had sent my hunters to shoot, and
while I was at breakfast they returned, bringing me a fine large male of the
Buceros bicornis, which one of them assured me he had shot while feeding the
female, which was shut up in a hole in a tree. I had often read of this curious
habit, and immediately returned to the place, accompanied by several of the
natives. After crossing a stream and a bog, we found a large tree leaning over
some water, and on its lower side, at a height of about twenty feet, appeared a
small hole, and what looked like a quantity of mud, which I was assured had
been used in stopping up the large hole. After a while we heard the harsh cry of a
bird inside, and could see the white extremity of its beak put out. I offered a
rupee to anyone who would go up and get the bird out, with the egg or young
one; but they all declared it was too difficult, and they were afraid to try. I
therefore very reluctantly came away. About an hour afterwards, much to my
surprise, a tremendous loud, hoarse screaming was heard, and the bird was
brought me, together with a young one which had been found in the hole. This
was a most curious object, as large as a pigeon, but without a particle of plumage