294 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



is one of the signals announcing the fact that the 

 rainy season has really set in. When they first 

 appear they do so in relatively small numbers, but, 

 as their favourite fruits mature, larger and larger 

 flocks assemble, and for a time all the trees are 

 nightly thronged from shortly after sundown until 

 the approach of dawn. After the fruit on the 

 devdars has been cleared off their numbers per- 

 ceptibly decrease, but the successive crops of plums 

 on the country-almonds, and the maturing in- 

 florescence of various other trees, such as Parkia 

 biglobosa, serve to attract a certain number of 

 visitors all through the autumn and the greater 

 part of winter. On approaching trees at which 

 they intend to feed, flying-foxes exchange their 

 usually slowly flapping, laborious progress for a 

 boldly sweeping flight in which they wheel around 

 in gradual descent, and finally plunge with a great 

 scuffling dash into the foliage. Their caution in 

 committing themselves to the branches is well 

 founded, for each .new arrival is greeted by torrents 

 of jealous chattering and resentful attacks from 

 those who are already at work and are disturbed 

 by the agitation of their locations. Owing to the 

 fact that whilst feeding they generally hang head 

 downward and suspended by the great hooked claws 

 on their hinder limbs, they are constantly dropping 

 half-devoured fruits, and bestrewing the ground 

 beneath with gnawed plums and berries. The 



