223 MAMMALIA 



BAT TRIBE. 



The Cheiroptera, or bats, are numefously represented \ti 

 these Provinces and Arracan ; but little progress however 

 has been made in the identification of species. Four are 

 known, but they are not probably a moiety of the number 

 that exists. 



FLYING FOX. 



This large bat has been very appropriately named, for 

 it bears a strong resemblance to a small fox in every thing 

 but its wings. Nor is it very small. Adults measure 

 from three to four feet across the wings from tip to tip. 

 They abound on the Coast, and it is quite impossi- 

 ble to keep ripe fruit from their depredations, without 

 inclosing it in basket work. When guava trees are bear- 

 ing, half devoured fruit will be found under them every 

 morning, which the flying foxes have rejected. In some 

 sections they may be seen in great numbers hanging by 

 their heels in the tops of palmyra palms. 

 Pteropus edulis, GeofTroy. 



" jav aniens, Desm. apud Horsfield. 



Edwardsii, GeofTroy. 



coS^'i co5or£» q]j(3JG0J. cojWS^sr 



CAVE EAT. 



Every one who visits the limestone caves of the Tenass- 

 erim coast is startled with their bat-wing music. Sud- 

 denly on entering these subterranean halls, thousands of 

 bats rush from their dark recesses, and wheel over the 

 traveller's head with the deep whizzing sounds of a passing 

 water-spout. And then they han£ trembling and rustling 

 their wings in the lofty black galleries above, like a choir 

 of wind harmonies muffled in the mountains. 



The large quantities of guano accumulated in the caves- 

 inhabited by these bats, might be turned to a profitable 

 account by our horticulturists. 



Scotophilus Temminckii, Gray. 



Vespertilie Temminckii, Horsfield. 



Vesptrtilio Bcla:igcrii } Isid. GeofT. 



