THE BATS. 35 



it should be added, making allowance for proportion, the 

 full grown male bat, of the largest species, rarely exceeding 

 twelve inches in height from head to foot. Bats' wings are 

 highly nervous and sensitive, so much so as to render their 

 owners almost independent of sight. Besides being "well 

 adapted for flight," says Dr. Percival Wright, "they are still 

 capable in a small measure of seizing, differing thus from 

 the anterior limbs of Birds." 



Bats. Dr. Dobson divides the order Cheiroptera into 

 two sub-orders : I, The Great Bats and II, The Smaller Bats. 

 Of these there are numerous genera and a large number of 

 species. THE GREAT BATS abound in the tropical and sub- 

 tropical regions of the East, where they live on fruit, and 

 from this circumstance are classified as "fruit-eating bats," 

 though they are sometimes called " flying-foxes." The largest 

 of these inhabit Sumatra and Java, living in large companies, 

 sleeping by day and foraging by night. A large tree serves 

 them for a sleeping-chamber, where, suspending themselves 

 head downwards from the branches, they wrap their wings 

 about them in lieu of blankets and sleep out the sunshine. 

 After sunset they gradually awake and proceed to ravage 

 any fruit preserves which may be within reach, committing 

 serious depredations while the owners outsleep the moon. 

 According to Mr. Francis Day, "they do very great injury 

 to cocoa-nut plantations and mangoe gardens." "Their 

 habits," says Mr. Day, "are very intemperate, and they often 

 pass the night drinking the toddy from the chatties in the 

 cocoa-nut trees, which results either in their returning home 

 in the early morning in a state of extreme and riotous 

 intoxication, or in being found the next day at the foot of 

 the trees, sleeping off the effects of their midnight debauch." 

 THE SMALLER BATS include several families, numerous genera, 

 and a large number of species to be found in almost all 

 parts of the world. These bats are chiefly insect-eaters, 

 though included among them are the vampire bats and the 



