STOKIES ABOUT BIRDS. 299 



climates. It is said to be exceedingly danger- 

 ous to sleep in tlie open air, in the island of 

 Java, with the head and feet uncovered, or in 

 the house, with the window open. Some of the 

 species are so skilful in their operation o± open- 

 ing a vein, and thrusting their tongue into the 

 wound, that people have been known to pass 

 insensibly from the state of sleep to that of 

 death. Besides blood, these animals also sub- 

 sist on the juices of some kinds of fruit ; and 

 they are so fond of the juice of the palm tree, 

 that they have been known to drink it, till 

 they fall down insensible. 



Finch, the traveler, informs us, that "they 

 hang to the boughs of trees, near Surat, in the 

 East Indies, in such vast clusters, as would 

 surprise a man to see; and the squalling they 

 make is so intolerable that it Avere a good deed 

 to bring two or three pieces of cannon, and 

 scour the trees, that the country might be rid 

 of such a plague as they are to it." 



More than twenty thousand bats were ob- 

 served, in the space of a mile, at Port Jackson, 

 in New Holland; and some that were caught 

 alive ate out of the hands of those who caught 

 them, and in a few days became as completely 

 tame, as if they had been brought up in the 

 house. One of these bats, belonging to Gov- 



