THE BATS AND INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 167 



PtHtt bj Frattlli Ali 



PIPISTRELLE BAT 



This is one of the commonest bats. It is the first to appear in the spring, and the last to retire at the fall of the year 



[Florence 



Ceylon, was some india-rubber-trees, " where they used to assemble in such prodigious numbers that 

 large boughs would not infrequently give way beneath the accumulated weight of the flock." An 

 observer in Calcutta relates that they occasionally travel in vast hordes, so great as to darken the 

 sky. Whether they are performing some preconcerted migration or bent only on a foray to some 

 distant feeding-ground is a matter for speculation. These hordes are quite distinct from the " long- 

 strings " which may be seen every evening in Calcutta on their way to neighbouring fruit-trees. 



One of the most remarkable of this group is the TUBE-NOSED FRUIT-BAT, in which the 

 nostrils are prolonged into a pair of relatively long tubes. Strangely enough, a group of insect- 

 eating bats has developed similar though smaller tubes. Except in these bats, such tubes are 

 unknown among mammals. Their function is not known. 



Some, 



INSECT-EATING BATS. 



The vast majority of the bats comprising this group feed exclusively on insects, 

 however, have acquired the habit of 

 fruit-eating, like the true fruit-bats ; 

 and a few have developed quite ogre- 

 like habits, for they drink blood 

 indeed, they subsist upon nothing else. 

 This they obtain from animals larger 

 than themselves. 



Many of the bats of this group 

 have developed curious leaf-like expan- 

 sions of skin around the nose and mouth, 

 which are supposed to be endowed 

 with a very delicate sense of touch. 

 In some, as in the FLOWER-NOSED BAT, 

 the nose-leaf is excessively developed, 

 forming a large rosette. The upper 

 border of this rosette is furnished with : 

 three stalked balls, the function of 



i . ., ... j . i , i Photo it A. S. Rudland & Sam 



which it is surmised is probably orna- 



. . . , . J . ^ * LEAF-NOSED BAT 



mental from the bat s point of view. , . f . , .... . , . , , 



ihe leaf-nosed are the most highly organised of all the bats. The remarkable 



To our more aesthetic taste the whole lea f. Kte f /j s O f skin around the nose or chint as the case may ^ serve M 



effect is hideOUS. organs of perception. There are numerous species of leaf-nosed bati 



