Billy Hall, aged 9, of Boise, Idaho for his question:

Are there, really flying snakes in Borneo?

Reports of flying snakes have come from Borneo and other parts of the East Indies. So let's take an imaginary trip to the tropical isle of Borneo and try to find out for ourselves. We arrive by plane. The world's third largest Island is below us. It looks like a jungle green carpet, threaded with silver streams. Down its spine weave four chains of crested mountains.

The reports said these flying snakes live in the jungle, So we load with provisions and take the highway to the jungle‑covered mountain slopes. We travel by boat. For the highway proves to be one of those silver streams. Our boat is a native proa, It is pointed at both ends and can travel forwards or backwards. It has a Mast in the middle which holds a sail.

As we near the jungle, the water is alive with hungrv crocodiles_

They do not bother us. For there is plenty of fish far them in the water. Our guides may take a few crocodiles for their leathery skins. Soon we are passing through avenues of monstrous trees. There is precious ebony, teakwood and ironwood. There are massive pines, some of them bearing coconuts. There are camphor bushes and tangles of vibrant green ferns.

As the bungle thickens, it shuts out all but dim daylight. Over ;here we hear a chomping and snorting in the underbrush. A family of tusked wild pigs is foraging for food. What are those monstrous shadows? A herd of elephants moves quietly on its majestic way, And also running wild in Borneo are honey bears and rhinos,

The tree tops are alive with monkey talk. For here there are gibbons and orangutan.  The sun sets and we await the coming of night. Something went Plop through the trees. That was a flying frog. He uses his outspread legs and furry coat to form a parachute. There goes a smaller Plop. That little fellow was a tree frog. In Borneo they even have flying frogs. These frogs have huge webbed feet which they use as parachutes to take leaps through the branches.

But where are those flying snakes? Over there a massive pythonslithers his coils around the arm of a giant tree, He weighs 200 pounds and he certainly couldn't fly through the air. Plop; What was that? A little snake has landed at our feet. He is too small and light to hurt himself so he just slithered off along the ground. Here comes another, This one came leaping down from 50 feet up in the trees.

Here then, is the famous flying snake. He is a small tree climbing boa snake. His fancy name is Enygrus Asper. We are lucky to find him for he is very rare, Actually the little boa does not really fly, He has no wings. Nor does he have flaps or webbed feet to use as parachutes, What he does is to leap from the, top of a tree to the ground. Very few snakes can leap or throw themselves at all. And this little boa of the East Indies is the champion jumper of the snake family. He is the flying snake without wings.