THE INDIAN POACHER AND HIS WAYS 251 



THE " FLYING-FOX " OR FRUIT-EATING BAT 



Mr. Douglas Dewar has given me the following note on 

 the method of trapping that loathsome mammal, the fruit- 

 eating bat, which Europeans in India commonly call the 

 " Flying-fox." 



" Certain natives of India consider that Flying-foxes are 

 good to eat ; while the fat is said to be a remedy for 

 rheumatism and impotency. As everyone knows, these 

 creatures feed at night on whatever fruit happens to be ripe. 

 Selecting a tree which from observation the men know will 

 be visited after sunset by a colony of flying-foxes, they 

 proceed to rig up a net in front of it, in the direction from 

 which they know the bats will come. In order to put up the 

 net it is necessary that there should be two trees taller than 

 and on either side of the fruit tree the bats will visit ; over 

 one of the higher branches of each of these trees a long rope is 

 thrown. Care is taken that neither rope becomes entangled 

 in any twigs. It is essential that both may be readily pulled 

 backwards and forwards. A net is then attached to one of 

 the ropes and the two latter are tied together so that there 

 is now but one length of rope that runs over both trees with 

 a net in the middle. If a man goes to each of the loose ends 

 of what is now one rope, and pulls them, the net is raised 

 and hangs in front of the fruit tree. The net is thus raised 

 just before the bats are timed to appear and is held in 

 position until the first of these arrives. It is caught in the 

 net. The men holding the sides of the rope let them run 

 through their fingers so that the net with the entangled 

 flying-fox falls to the ground. A third man secures the bat 

 and as soon as it is removed the net is again pulled up in 

 readiness for the next victim." 



A very similar method was practised by the men who had 

 to protect the crop of lichis and mangoes in the large 

 compound of the house I occupied at Dehra. The bats used 

 to arrive in flocks when the fruit of these trees was ripening, 

 and were a great nuisance. 



II. BIRDS 



A large number of birds are destroyed annually by the 

 natives without discrimination of species, season or close 

 time, or the fact that the destruction of the parents in the 



