190 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XV 111. 



manipulate, even with a camel's hair brush, without damage. They appeared 

 to me to be in different stages of development, the embryo from the egg 

 nearest to the cloaca, yielding better results than those placed farthest away, 

 the foremost two of which were too tender to make any observations from, 

 breaking up on the slightest touch. 



The length of the embryo, allowing for the convoluted form, some folds 

 of which could ~~ x be unravelled, I estimated measured about one inch, the 

 head was about ^ of an inch long. The eye was partly developed, and the 

 heart appeared stomach-shaped and could be seen pulsating. I thought I 

 could perceive three branchial clefts below the mouth gap, but the creature 

 was too minute to speak positively on such a point. I could discern no rudi- 

 ments of fore limbs. 



F. WALL, c.M.z.s., Major, i.m.s. 



Dihrugarh, 28/7* May, 1907. 



No. IX.— DO BATS EAT BIRDS ? 



In reply to Mr. Ernest Green's inquiry, Do bats eat birds? — on page 835 of 

 Vol. XVII of the journal, I can inform him that birds form a large propor- 

 tion of the food of Megaderma lyra. It is surprising that the ways of this 

 ghostly beast have so long remained unknown. Blyth found one in the act 

 of carrying a small bat which was bleeding from a wound behind the ear, 

 and his observation has been quoted in every book on the subject that has 

 been published since, as a proof that M. lyra has undoubtedly carnivorous 

 propensities. And this has been our stock of knowledge on the subject, while 

 the bat has been nightly leaving the remains of its feasts in our bed-rooms 

 and verandahs. It is long since I kept Megaderma lyra and made the 

 astonishing discovery that the first part of a bird (a sparrow was the species 

 experimented with) which the bat eats is the head. Its jaws and teeth must be 

 comparable to those of a hyaena. It also captures and eats mice and frogs. 

 The headless trunk of a tame mouse which had escaped from my cage was 

 found in the morning in the cage of M. lyra. I do not know how they catch 

 mice, but I imagine they flop down upon them with wings outspread. Unlike 

 other bats, they have not the least difficulty in rising from the ground. They 

 catch birds of course off their roosting places. They may often be seen flitting 

 about trees after dusk, manifestly on this quest. 



E. H. AITKEN. 

 The Red Sea, 21st* May, 1907. 



No. X— SOME ADDITIONS TO THE BIRDS OF INDIA. 



(1). Fringilla ccelebs. The Chaffinch. 



This species appears to be a rare winter visitor to the Mirauzai valley (Kohat 

 District) N.-W. F. P. I first came across it on the 2nd March 1906 in a small 



