PTEROPUS. 39 
For faithful portraying, no one could improve on this description. 
These bats are exceeding strong on the wing. I was aware that they 
went long distances in search of food, but I was not aware of the power 
they had for sustained flight till the year 1869, when, on my way to 
England on furlough, I discovered a large flying fox winging his way 
towards our vessel, which was at that time more than two hundred miles 
from land. Exhausted, it clung on to the fore-yard arm; and a 
present of a rupee induced a Lascar to go aloft and seize it, which he 
did after several attempts. The voracity with which it attacked some 
plantains showed that it had been for some time deprived of food, 
probably having been blown off shore by high winds. - Hanging head- 
downwards from its cage, it stuffed the fruit into its cheeks, monkey- 
fashion, and then seemed to chew it at leisure. When I left the steamer 
at Suez it remained in the captain's possession, and seemed to be tame 
and reconciled to its imprisonment, tempered by a surfeit of plantains. 
In flying over water they frequently dip down to touch the surface. 
Jerdon was in doubt whether they did this to drink or not, but 
McMaster feels sure that they do this in order to drink, and that the 
_ habit is not peculiar to the Preropodide, as he has noticed other bats 
doing the same. Colonel Sykes states that he “‘can personally testify 
that their flesh is delicate and without disagreeable flavour;” and 
another colonel of my acquaintance once regaled his friends on some 
flying fox cutlets, which were pronounced “not bad.” Dr. Day accuses 
these bats of intemperate habits ; drinking the toddy from the earthen 
pots on the cocoanut trees, and flying home intoxicated. The wild 
almond is a favourite fruit. 
Mr. Rainey, who has been a careful observer of animals for years, 
states that in Bengal these bats prefer clumps of bamboos for a resting 
place, and feed much on the fruit of the betelnut palm when ripe. 
Another naturalist, Mr. G. Vidal, writes that in Southern India the 
P. medius feeds chiefly on the green drupe or nut of the Alexandrian 
laurel (Calophyllum inophyllum), the kernels of which contain a strong- 
smelling green oil on which the bats fatten amazingly; and then they 
in turn yield, when boiled down, an oil which is recommended as an 
excellent stimulative application for the hair. I noticed in Seonee 
a curious superstition to the effect that a bone of this bat tied on to the 
ancle by a cord of black cowhair is a sovereign remedy, according to 
the natives, for rheumatism in the leg. Tickell states that these bats 
produce one at a time in March or April, and they continue a fixture 
on the mother till the end of May or beginning of June. 
