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FLYING FOX, OR ROUSSETTE.—Ptéropus Rubricollis. 
beetles are wont to do on summer's evenings. A visit to a bat-cave is, therefore, no 
pleasant affair. 
The bats which have heretofore been mentioned feed on animal substances, insects 
appearing to afford the principal nutriment, and raw meat or fresh blood being their 
occasional luxuries. But the bats of which the accompanying engraving is an example, 
are chiefly vegetable feeders, and, in their own land, are most mischievous among the 
fruit-trees. 
They are the largest of the present bat tribe, some of them measuring nearly five feet 
in expanse of wing. Their popular name is FLy1nG Foxss, a term which has been applied 
to them on account of the red, fox-like colour of the fur, and the very vulpine aspect of 
the head. Although so superior in size to the Vampires, the Flying Foxes are not to be 
dreaded as personal enemies, for, unless roughly handled, they are not given to biting 
animated beings. 
But though their attacks are not made directly upon animal life, they are of consider- 
able importance in an indirect point of view, for they are aimed against the fruits and 
