THE INDIAN FLYING-FOX 179 



taken at sea 200 miles from land. Their ordinary food is wild fruit, 

 almonds, and so forth, but when they get the chance they fall greedily 

 upon orchards, devouring any sort of cultivated fruit except the orange 

 tribe. They drink in captivity, so, no doubt, when in the wild state 

 they are seen, as they often are, to sweep down and touch water, they 

 are taking a sip on the wing. 



At dawn they come back to the roosting-trees, for this species, like 

 so many Fruit-Bats, only roosts in trees, and, as a great number roost 

 together, their quarrelsome disposition leads to hours of skirmishing 

 before they at last get sleepy and resign themselves to a day's rest. 



Sometimes they drink the sap of the palms collected in the vessels 

 hung up by the toddy-makers, and if this has fermented they get 

 uproariously drunk, some being forced to rest at times helpless beneath 

 the palms lucky, no doubt, if some Jackal does not find them before 

 they have recovered from the results of their intemperance. Con- 

 sidering the rowdy propensities of the Flying-Fox when sober, the 

 arrival of an inebriated party at the " battery " if one may coin such 

 an expression for the roosting-tree ought to be a sight worth seeing. 



As is the general rule with Bats, the Flying-Fox has but one young 

 one at a birth, which clings to the breast of its dam for a couple of 

 months ; it is usually born in the spring. In spite of this slow increase, 

 the animal is very numerous in India, and their long trains crossing 

 the sky at dusk are as familiar in Calcutta as the Rooks in England. 

 The Flying-Fox is, however, a long-lived animal, having been known 

 to reach twenty years of age in captivity, and seems to have no 

 particular enemies, so that its abundance is not inexplicable. Owing 

 to its ravages on fruit, it is one of the standing nuisances of the 

 country, and certainly needs thinning down, though it would be a 

 pity to exterminate so picturesque a creature. It has also some direct 

 utility, being relished as food by the Goanese half-caste Portuguese, 

 and by certain low Hindoo castes, in spite of its rank musky smell. 



Numbers are caught alive for export as menagerie specimens, and, 

 as might be inferred from what has been said above, they bear 

 captivity well. They may often be obtained from our London dealers. 



