diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a71113f..720b7f1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
   - Better subclassing support: Determine classes dynamically,
     so that methods like str() are aware when our types are subclassed.
   - Removed no-op check and extra list allocation during chop()
+  - overlaps() on a range no longer scans the entire boundary table;
+    only boundary points inside the queried range are tested (#127)
 - Maintainers:
   - Load issue4 test data via JSON to save on compilation and collection time.
 
diff --git a/intervaltree/intervaltree.py b/intervaltree/intervaltree.py
index e273127..8e39b0a 100644
--- a/intervaltree/intervaltree.py
+++ b/intervaltree/intervaltree.py
@@ -619,10 +619,16 @@ def overlaps_range(self, begin, end):
             return False
         elif self.overlaps_point(begin):
             return True
+        # only test boundary points inside (begin, end), not the whole
+        # boundary table (#127); boundaries exactly at begin are already
+        # covered by the overlaps_point(begin) check above
+        boundary_table = self.boundary_table
+        bound_begin = boundary_table.bisect_left(begin)
+        bound_end = boundary_table.bisect_left(end)  # up to, but not including end
         return any(
             self.overlaps_point(bound)
-            for bound in self.boundary_table
-            if begin < bound < end
+            for index in xrange(bound_begin, bound_end)
+            for bound in (boundary_table.keys()[index],)
         )
 
     def split_overlaps(self):
diff --git a/test/issues/issue127_test.py b/test/issues/issue127_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8dc063
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/issues/issue127_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+Regression test for issue #127: overlaps(begin, end) on a range scanned
+every boundary point in the tree (O(n) pure-python comparisons per query)
+instead of only the points inside (begin, end).
+
+300k disjoint intervals -> 600k boundary points. A miss-case query in the
+unfixed code takes ~4s for 200 queries; with the boundary scan restricted
+to the query range it should be under a tenth of a second.
+"""
+import time
+
+from intervaltree import IntervalTree
+
+
+def test_overlaps_range_scans_only_query_range():
+    tree = IntervalTree.from_tuples((i * 10, i * 10 + 4) for i in range(300000))
+
+    # sanity: semantics must be unchanged
+    assert tree.overlaps(500006, 500009) is False   # range inside a pure gap
+    assert tree.overlaps(500006, 500012) is True    # range reaches (500010, 500014)
+
+    t0 = time.time()
+    for _ in range(200):
+        tree.overlaps(500006, 500009)
+    # unfixed: ~4s (600k boundary comparisons per query)
+    # fixed:    ~0.01s (only the 0-2 boundaries inside the range)
+    assert time.time() - t0 < 1.0