2G0 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



where those birds had begun their morning feast by 

 their loud, unceasing screeching and chattering ; and, 

 after stealthily creeping through dense shrubbery for 

 hundreds of yards, I would suddenly behold one of 

 these great trees filled with scores of such brilliantly- 

 plumaged birds, flying about or climbing out to the 

 ends of the branches, and using their wings to aid in 

 poising themselves while they made a dainty break- 

 fast on the rich flowers. These are indeed the bii'ds 

 that Moore describes as — 



" Gay, sparkling loories, such as gleam between 

 The crimson flowers of the coral-tree 

 In the warm isles of India's simny sea." 



Soon after sunset huge bats always came out, in 

 pairs, and sailed about on their leathery wings, search- 

 ing for those trees that chanced to be in fruit. The 

 wings of a male that I shot measured four feet and 

 four inches from tip to tip, and the wings of the female, 

 which accompanied him, expanded four feet eight 

 inches. They are very properly named by the Dutch, 

 " flying foxes," and almost seem to be antediluvian mon- 

 sters, which ought to have disappeared from the face of 

 the earth long ago, like the foimidable PterodacPyles. 

 During the day they hide away in the thick foliage, 

 and one afternoon I found one hanging, as they de- 

 light to do when they rest or sleep, with its head 

 downward, from the limb of a tree. They are very 

 tenacious of life, and will receive charge after charge 

 of large shot in the head before they will let go of 

 the limbs with their crooked claws and allow them- 

 selves to fall. They are said to be good for food, but 

 I never saw the natives eat them, and certainly had 



