424 BCItMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PnoDL'CTlOXS. 



bfinf; tlireatcned from all points, and \\\in\ lie eventually hooks on, has to go 

 through a scries of tomhats, and be probably ejected two or three times before he 

 makes good his 'tenure.' The 'alarums' and 'excursions' continue till 8, 9, or 10 a.m., 

 ■when the bats get sleepy, and hang side by side in peace, fanning themselves with 

 their wings, which in repose they wrap around the head, slumbering with the chin 

 on the breast, and the muzzle covered l)y the Tuembrane of the last phalanges. The 

 usual noises of a village, in the centre of which they often select their roosting-placc, 

 do not appear to disturb them, or to cause further stir, than the production of two or 

 three heads, from within their mantles, which after a look on the houses and people 

 below, and a few rapid tremulous movements of the ears, are again popped into their 

 envelopes. The report of a gun causes dreadful commotion. They rise in clouds 

 from the tree, and continue circling round and round, having to fight their battles 

 over again, when left to resettle, and to go through the whole scene, shrieking, 

 cackling and contention of the morning. . . The flying fox is easily tamed. It will 

 eat or i.h'ink from the hand a day or two after capture even when wounded. It 

 drinks eagerly at all hours, lapping milk or water with its long pointed tongue, and 

 it readily learns to eat in the day-time as well as at night. ' Hookey,' as a tame one 

 has been named, has become perfectly familiar, rather fearless than tame, for he 

 attacks the approaching hand, tooth and nail (literally), although he will eat and 

 drink from it. He is accommodated with a high narrow box, having a projecting 

 gi'ating, to which he hangs suspended, endeavouring to grapple all passers, with sound 

 hook or thumb claw (one being broken in capture), to see whether they have any 

 eatables upon them. When angry, he opens his mouth, growling or cackling in the 

 fashion of a moukey, and striking out forcilily with the aforementioned claw or hook. 

 If the contest wax too warm for him, he swings round, and strides back into the box, 

 head downwards all the time, of course." These animals are very cleanly in their 

 habits, and when about to void their excrement, adroitly reverse their position by 

 letting go with their feet and holding on with their thumb-claws, when, as Tickell 

 remarks, there is " with reference to its own head, no further occasion for precaution ! " 

 They are much infested with a very nimble spider-shaped tick. There is but one 

 species throughout India and Burma ; unless P. edidis, Geoif roy, also should prove to 

 range into Southern Tenasserim. 



P. NiCOBAEICUS, Fitz. 



P. melamtus, Blyth. 



Resembles P. medhcs, but the skull differs in being shorter, wider across tlie 

 maxillai-y and nasal bones, and in having all its processes and crests more strongly 

 developed, and in the foramen ovate being divided by a process of bone, which is 

 wanting in P. meih'us. 



Inhabits the Nieobar and Andaman Islands. 



CvNOPTEKUs, P. Cuvier. 



SIuzzlo much shorter and comparatively thicker than in Pteropun, hut otherwise 

 similar. Tail present, save in C. ecaudatus, from Sumatra. The shortness of the 

 muzzle causes the sujipression of the last molar. 



Index finger with a claw. 



Dentition, I. J or J; C. .j ; P.M. J ; M. ^ 

 Sub-genus Ctnopteeus. Incisors i. 



C. (PtEUOPUs) M.IEGINATUS, Gcotf. 



Ptiropics tittheicchilus, Tern. 

 Paehi/soma Diardii, Is. Oeoffr. 

 P. Dm-anccllii, Is. Geoffr. 

 P. hrevicaudatum. Is. Geoff. 

 P. Luzoniense, Peters. 

 Pteroptis pyrivoncn, Hodgson. 

 Ci/nopterus Jlorsfieldii, Gray. 

 Meuthcrura marginata, Gray. 



