134 BOMBAY DUCKS 



a time, wheel round the roosting trees. After a little, 

 one of the bats approaches a branch, catches the hook- 

 like claws of his hind limbs over it, and allows himself 

 to hang. When once a bat has thus taken up a position 

 on a bough, he looks upon that particular bough as 

 his own especial property, just as a human being ap- 

 propriates a compartment of a railway carriage ; but 

 whereas Homo sapiens only stares angrily at another of 

 his species who dares to intrude, Pteropus edwardsi not 

 only glares at any other bat that makes so bold as to 

 venture on to the branch appropriated by him (for bats 

 are not blind), but attacks it with teeth and claws, and 

 at the same time shrieks, " Why the deuce can't you 

 keep out of this ? " or words to that effect. The intruder 

 then remarks, in a screech, that had he known the class 

 of bat that was accustomed to hang out on that branch 

 he would not have defiled himself by hooking on to it ! 

 Having thus relieved his ruffled feelings he betakes 

 himself to another part of the tree. Eventually, all the 

 desirable boughs are occupied by flying foxes ; but still 

 many of the animals are without accommodation, and 

 fresh ones continue to arrive. Then the real fun begins. 

 Little tiffs, such as that described above, pale into 

 insignificance before the squabbles which now take 

 place. Each of those thousand odd bats has made up 

 its mind to roost in one of those four trees, and each of 

 those already hanging on is equally determined to have 

 a branch all to itself Hence the place becomes a verit- 

 able pandemonium, and the noise of the fighting and 

 squabbling can be heard everywhere within a quarter- 

 mile radius. 



