i8 95 . MAMMALS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 27 



India, it is supposed to have magical properties, being able to see 

 ghosts, and every part of it, including its tears, is used in medicine. 



The Galago or " Kubong " (Galeopitliecus volans) is plentiful in 

 some parts of Singapore. It frequents the thickest jungles, remaining 

 all day closely clasping the trunks of trees, which its beautiful 

 soft mottled green and grey fur resembles, and moving about at night. 

 Beside the one coloured as above mentioned, there is another less 

 common form with red fur. It appears to live on leaves, as the 

 stomach is always full of nibbled up foliage, but in captivity it 

 will eat plantains. It is a very delicate animal, and difficult to keep, 

 suffering much from cold. During the day it makes at times a noise 

 like the quacking of a duck. I have twice obtained females with 

 single young ones clinging to them. 



Cheiroptera : — There is a considerable number of species of 

 bats in Singapore, but it is difficult to get much information on their 

 habits. 



The large fruit-bats (Pteropus vampivus), " Kelawang " of the 

 Malays, are abundant at certain times, appearing in vast numbers 

 and taking up their abode in some chosen spot, remaining there for 

 some two or three months and then scattering again and disappearing 

 utterly. One year the Garden jungle was a favoured spot, and it was 

 roughly calculated that seventy thousand roosted there every day. 

 The reason for this flocking of the fruit-bats I cannot guess, as it 

 appears to take place at no particular time of year, nor does it bear 

 any relation to the fruit season. They devour large quantities of 

 fruit of all kinds, but appear to do less damage than the smaller 

 Cynoptcvi, which are permanent residents and, occurring in great 

 abundance, destroy a great quantity of fruits. To keep the fruits 

 from the bats, the natives often enclose the bunches in bags of cloth 

 or matting, and also attach to the trees the long thorny flagella of 

 rattans, in which the bats entangle their wings and tear them when 

 they attempt to attack the fruit. 



The smaller fruit-bats hide during the day beneath plantain 

 leaves, and in such places, and also in caverns and holes in rocks, 

 often in enormous numbers. The Bat-caves of Selanger are well 

 known. They are large caverns in the limestone rocks, in which 

 myriads of bats, apparently of several species, roost during the day. 

 The floor of the caves is ankle deep in bats' dung, containing myriads 

 of beetles' wings and exhaling a strong pungent odour, while the 

 squeaks of the bats and the whirr of their wings can be heard at some 

 distance from the mouth of the caves. 



These fruit bats play an important part in the dispersal of seeds, 

 for when they devour a fruit they often bear it to some distance to 

 eat, throwing away the seeds as they eat the flesh. Once, when 

 sleeping in a rather open bungalow at Ayer Panas, in Malacca, I was 

 kept awake for some time by the dropping of seeds of Elceocavpus 

 parvifolius, the " Medong Kelawang " {lit. Bats' Elceocavpus) of the 



