296 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



bats, and, as the notes of the call are very like 

 their wrangling cries, the quarrelsome creatures are 

 very apt to approach it and to afford the man 

 with the Mnta a chance of beating them down. 

 There can be little question that it is only prejudice, 

 arising from the unpleasing way in which their coats 

 swarm with vermin, that prevents flying-foxes from 

 coming into the European market, for their flesh 

 ought to be particularly delicate, owing to the diet 

 of fresh fruits and buds on which it is nourished, 

 and their fur is extremely beautiful in colour, and 

 wonderfully fine and soft in texture. As it is, 

 no Anglo- Indian has the courage to try them, 

 although many are constantly slaughtered by idle 

 sportsmen, who find them tempting targets as 

 they flap slowly across the dusk of the evening 

 sky, or in the brilliant moonlight of the later hours 

 of the night. They are brought down by very 

 slight injuries, the passage of a single pellet through 

 the membrane of one wing being often enough to 

 cause their fall. 



Short-nosed fruit-bats, Cynopterus marginatus, 

 are very abundant around Calcutta, but do not 

 attract so much notice as the large flying-foxes 

 do, both on account of their smaller size, and 

 because they never occur in colonies, but spend 

 the hours of daylight either alone or at utmost in 

 pairs. Moreover, when resting they always lie con- 

 cealed, never taking up conspicuous places among 



