( II \l\ Will. I HER ANI.MAL.s. 219 



remaining concealed during the daytime in their burrows, which 

 are gem-rally made amongst rocks where these are available. 

 They feed on vegetable' matter, chiefly on roots, and often do greal 

 damage to garden crops and to voting trees. The latter might be 

 protei led to some extent bj giving .1 good thi< k coal ol whitewash 

 mixed with an insoluble arsenical such as Lead Arsenate. < >ther- 

 wise the treatment foi porcupines is much the same as that gi 

 rats. It may, however, be noted that these animals are often inclin- 

 ed to be gregarious and 01 cupj more or less permanent burrows. 



II ires are generallj common in dry cultivated areas and 

 times do a little damage to crops ; but they are unimportant to the 

 agriculturist as a rule. 



Flying Foxes (Pteropus gigantens), large fruit-eating Hats, are 

 verj common in some districts, feeding normally on wild figs but 

 attacking all fruit and often doing serious damage in orchards. 

 I'he\ also drink todd j on occasion and are sometimes found com- 

 pletely " drunk and incapable " under the trees the next morning. 

 I hej generally rest in the daytime in particular trees to which they 

 resort year alter year, sallying out every evening at dusk and 

 ranging over a circle of fifteen or twenty miles' radius. It is 

 remarkable how a tree in fruit is discovered immediately the fruit 

 to ripen, attracting the bats from miles around. It is 

 difficult to protect fruit-trees or crops from the ravages of these 

 animals but the following note by Mr. John Still, extracted from 

 "Spolia Zeylanica" (Vol. VI, p. 54). seems to offer a hint 

 method which might be adopted in districts where these bat- do 

 damage : — 



"In the North-Western Province, near Ganewatta Station, I 

 noticed in a paddy-field a most ingenious method of capturing 

 flying foxes. Great strings of cane are hung across the narrow 

 fields, and from them depend at intervals of 3 or 4 feet long 

 streamers made by tying together several of the whip-like 

 shoots of the common jungle cane. These whips are so thin a- to 

 be almost invisible in the dusk, and their thorns are sufficiently 

 .us to hold captive any imforUin fox who gets into 



heir grip." 



1 Southern Short-nosed Fruit-bat (Cynopterus sphinx; margi- 

 natus of the " Fauna " volume) is also common, roosting by day 

 solitarily or in small parties on leaves of plantains and palms. 

 It flies swiftly in the evening, feeding entirely on fruit anil 

 being often extremely destructive to plantains, mangoes and 

 guavas. One which I had in confinement for some time ate a 

 whole plantain nightly but under natural conditions probably 

 several fruits would have been partially eaten and spoilt. 



