1 2 6 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



were mangled rather than masticated, and in my pres- 

 ence the he-Kalong swallowed three pounds of boiled 

 carrots in less than twenty minutes. Like maggots, 

 bats seem to assimilate only a small portion of their 

 food, as deglutition and excretion are divided by a very 

 short space of time, and their voracity appears to be a 

 vague desire to " fill up," rather than an appetite for 

 any special kind of comestibles. Few soft organic sub- 

 stances of any kind seemed to come amiss to our Rous- 

 settes : potatoes, boiled meat, butter, bread, and bean- 

 pods were devoured with equal greed, though not with 

 the same rapidity as sweet fruits. By way of trying 

 them, we once offered them spoonful upon spoonful of 

 hashed beef, and, after gobbling about twenty ounces 

 apiece, their swallowing process became somewhat la- 

 borious ; but a slice of baked apple at once restored 

 the vigor of that function, and they gaped as wide as 

 ever. About an hour before sunset they began to get 

 restless, and if the box was left open the he-Kalong 

 would soon raise himself above the rim by means of 

 his wing-hooks and move his head left and right, with 

 an occasional grin of his foxy teeth. If supper was late, 

 his mate would join him before long, and, after grin- 

 ning and bearing it for a while, their impatience gener- 

 ally resulted in a quarrel: they would hook away at 

 each other and utter their peculiar cry, a series of shrill 

 whistles, varied only by prolonging or abbreviating the 

 pauses. At the sight of a caterer they changed their 



