288 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



light is so strong that king- crows are still hawking, 

 and parties of swifts screaming and circling around, 

 but, as the dusk deepens, larger and stronger-flying 

 ones make their appearance, and presently huge 

 flying-foxes begin to flap their way laboriously 

 high overhead. The smallest bats have a very 

 wavering, moth-like flight, but some of the larger 

 ones dash and wheel around almost like snipe. 

 One species of considerable size usually makes a 

 continuously creaking sound while flying, as though 

 all its joints wanted oiling, but whether this be 

 due to some peculiarity of flight or to the repeti- 

 tion of a cry I never could determine. Bats are 

 sometimes described as swooping, but, if the term 

 be applicable to the flight of any species, it is 

 only to that of the great fruit-bats, who, on 

 nearing a tree in which they purpose to feed, 

 exchange the laboured flapping of their common 

 flight for a series of plunging and sweeping 

 descents. 



Every one who has visited the great and often 

 partly ruined mosques and tombs of Upper India 

 must be only too familiar with the villainous odour 

 that pervades many parts of them, owing to the 

 extent to which they are peopled by bats. The 

 spaces between the inner and outer vaultings of 

 the great domes of the Taj and Humayun's tomb 

 are almost always haunted by multitudes of them ; 

 and it is a memorable experience to look upwards 



