CREATURES OF DARKNESS 223 



culty lies in crunching the insect without losing the grip of 

 the jaws or wasting precious fragments. The bat solves this 

 problem by suddenly lowering its head to its skin basket where 

 it chews its prey without danger of losing it. While this action 

 is progressing the animal tumbles wildly in the air, plummet- 

 ing downwards, but it is so perfectly adjusted to such acro- 

 batics that it recovers in an instant and continues its flight. 



Searching about on the floor of the cave beneath the holes 

 where they slept, I found great piles of tamarind seeds. Ap- 

 parently these Artibeus bats carried the fruits to the caves and 

 chewed them at leisure or swallowed them whole at the tree. 

 With a net I filled the bag to overflowing— a quarreling, 

 squeaking mass of fur and leathery wings— and crawled outside 

 into the sunlight. One by one I examined the creatures and 

 permitted them to escape. Of the fifty-three that I captured 

 only four were females. All the remainder were full-grown 

 males. Lady Artibeus must be at a premium; the competition 

 between males must be keen. 



One of the females was carrying a baby, a queer little mite 

 with a face that looked at least eighty years old. It was cHng- 

 ing tightly to her breasts, snuggled close into her fur. The 

 mother tried to protect it and folded one of her wings over 

 its body. I let her go and she soared into the sunlight. Between 

 wing strokes I could see the huddled form of the infant hang- 

 ing upside down clutching its mother. Until they are able to 

 fly these baby bats must ride along with the parent as she 

 wings her way in search of insects or tamarinds. They do not 

 know how to fly at birth but must undergo a slow period of 

 maturation. Unlike birds, baby bats have no nests in which to 

 rest, and as the mother spends all her hours either flying or 

 hanging from a cave wall suspended upside down by her feet, 

 the babies must grasp from the day they are born. 



It is a strange and paradoxical thing that the closest relatives 



