THE COMMON FRUIT-BATS, OR FOX-BATS 255 



distances occasionally to such trees as happen to be in fruit. ' ' As the first streaks 

 of dawn begin to appear in the east, the bats set out on their homeward journey 

 from the field of their depredations, and the scene which ensues on their arrival 

 at their roosting-place is graphically described by Colonel Tickell : ' ' From the 

 arrival of the first comer, until the sun is high above the horizon, a scene of inces- 

 sant wrangling and contention is enacted among them, as each endeavors to secure 

 a higher and better place, or to eject a neighbor from too close vicinage. In these 

 struggles the bats hook themselves along the branches, scrambling about hand-over- 

 hand with some speed, biting each other severely, striking out with the long claw 

 of the thumb, shrieking and cackling without intermission. Each new animal is 

 compelled to fly several times round the tree, being threatened from all points, and 

 when he eventually hooks on he has to go through a series of combats, and be 

 probably ejected two or three times before he makes good his tenure." 



Full accounts of this bat will also be found in Sir J. Emerson Tennent's 

 Natural History of Ceylon, although it is probable that this writer was mistaken in 

 saying that its diet included insects. He observes that a favorite resort of these 

 bats was some tall india-rubber trees near Kandy, in Ceylon, where they used to 

 assemble in such prodigious numbers that large boughs would not unfrequently 

 give way beneath the accumulated weight of the flock. It is also stated that the 

 branches on which they are accustomed to roost become almost denuded of leaves, 

 most of these being stripped off by the bats as they contend with one another for 

 the favorite roosting-places. When suspended in the usual position, these bats 

 move easily from place to place, and from branch to branch, by using each foot in 

 turn, and by climbing, when occasion requires, by the aid of the claws. When 

 feeding, Colonel Tickell states that the fox-bats hang by one foot only, and take 

 the fruit they are about to eat in the other, seizing it by driving in their claws like a 

 fork, and not by a grasping action. 



Fox-bats invariably fly singly in long files, and never in close flocks; their 

 flight being a slow, flapping, measured movement. In Calcutta the long strings of 

 these bats may be seen every evening stretching across the sky from west to east, 

 although the number of individuals varies considerably at different seasons of the 

 year. Writing there on August 23d, 1869, Dr. John Anderson observes that " this 

 species has been flying for the last few days from the north to the south of the city, 

 in immense numbers, immediately after sunset. The sky from east to west has 

 been covered with them as far as the eye could reach, and all were flying with an 

 evident purpose, and making for some common feeding-ground. Over a transverse 

 area of two hundred and fifty yards, as many as seventy bats passed overhead in 

 one minute, and as they were spread over an area of great breadth, and could be 

 detected in the sky on both sides as far as the eye could reach, their numbers were 

 very great, but yet they continued to pass overhead for about half an hour. This 

 is not the first time I have observed this habit in this species ; indeed, it was much 

 more markedly seen in August, 1864, while I was residing in the Botanical Gardens, 

 Calcutta. The sky, immediately after sunset, was covered with these bats, traveling 

 in a steady manner from west to east, and spread over a vast expanse, all evidently 

 making for one common goal, and trayeling as it were, like birds of passage with 



