A NOISY COMMUNITY. 243 



pcnd themselves in the open air from the branches of large trees. 

 Sir Emerson Tennant has given us an interesting account of the 

 habits of one of these animals found in Ceylon. They take pos- 

 session, he says, during the day, of particular trees, upon which 

 they hang like so much ripe fruit. It seems, however, that every 

 morning between the hours of nine and eleven they take it into 

 their heads to have a little exercise, and dropping from the tree?, 

 they go wheeling about in the air, a hundred or more together, 

 and apparently enjoying the sunshine and warmth. On their 

 return from this morning exercise there is always a good deal of 

 chattering and screaming amongst them before they can again 

 get comfortably settled in their places ; but once that is accom- 

 plished, they become quiet and remain so until the evening, 

 when they move off towards their feeding- grounds. 



With respect to size, the tropics seem to have both extremes of 

 the Bat tribe ; for while the great Flying Foxes reach four and 

 five feet in the expaese of their wings, there are other Bats to be 

 found iu the same regions which are the merest pigmies. One 

 mentioned by Sir E. Tennant is not larger than a Humble Bee. 

 It is of a glossy black colour ; and is so familiar that it will 

 alight on the table during dinner, and seldom makes any effort 

 to escape before a wine-glass can be inverted over it. 



In cold and temperate climates the Bats are comparatively 

 small, and the whole of them belong to the insectivorous section 

 of the tribe. Their food consists principally of moths, gnats, arid 

 other late-flying insects ; and considering the great abundance of 

 the tribe, they must act as an important check upon that descrip- 

 tion of insect life. In thus subsisting upon the crepuscular or 

 twilight-flying and nocturnal insects, the Bats discharge a simi- 

 lar office to that of the Swallows with respect to the insects 

 which fly by day ; and, like those birds, they have the gape con- 

 siderably widened and enlarged, to enable them the more readily 

 to capture their prey without pausing in their rapid flight. 



As the season advances, and the heat begins to abate, our 

 native Bats gradually disappear from their accustomed haunts, 

 and retire to their winter quarters, where, huddled together, often 

 in great numbers, and sometimes two or three distinct species in 

 the same retreat, they suspend themselves by their hind feet, and 

 remain in a dormant state until the approach of spring. The dif- 

 ferent species are by no means uniform as to the period of their 



