012 NATURAL HISTORY. 



its large size, and the shape of its head and bod}-, it is known as the flying- 

 fox. All the species are much alike in their habits. They rarely exceed 

 five feet in spread of wing. In the morning some of them may be seen 

 between the hours of nine and eleven ; then they retire to the woods to 

 spend the heat of the day, and again at evening they come out in much 

 larger numbers, and frequently do considerable damage to the fruit-groves 

 and plantations : mangoes, guava, plantains, and other fruits suffer, and, 

 says Thwaites, they frequent the places where palm-toddy is being brewed, 

 and get just as disreputably drunk as any human being on the same 

 liquor. In the early hours of the morning they may be seen flying home 

 on unsteady pinions, in a state of riotous intoxication. They, however, 

 have no occasion to let themselves in with a latch-key ; for their habitation 

 is of a very primitive character, and is unprovided with locks and bars. 

 All that they need is a forest where they will be undisturbed, and here, 

 hanging head downwards, their hind feet grasping the limb, they sleep off 

 the effects of their debauch. When thus hanging, they wrap their wings 

 about them, and whenever I have seen them hanging thus in capitivity, I 

 have invariably thought of the stage villain wrapped for concealment in 

 his cloak of black. 



These bats have an economic importance in the lands where they are 

 abundant, for they are extensively used for food. The natives go in the 

 day-time to their roosting-places, knock them down with sticks, and carry 

 them home by the basketful. In preparing them for the kettle or the 

 oven, great care is necessary, as the fur and skin has a very powerful 

 ' foxy ' odor, and the least contact of this with the flesh is sure to commu- 

 nicate the flavor. They are usually cooked with an abundance of spices, 

 and are said to taste much like hare. One or two facts more must lie 

 mentioned. In their flight they resemble crows rather than bats ; and 

 Haeckel, who saw them in Ceylon, refers to their drinking habits and the 

 cause, saying that "this predilection may no doubt be amply accounted 

 for by the near affinity of the bats to the apes, — as proved by their phylo- 

 genetic pedigree, — and through apes to man." Haeckel is nothing if not 

 an evolutionist, but this is a species of evolution not laid down in the 

 works of Darwin, Lamarck, or even Buff on. 



The rest of the bats live upon animal food, and insects especially form 

 the diet of most of the group. They are even more nocturnal than the 

 fruit-bats. At night they fly about, but in the day-time they retire to 

 some dark place to sleep away the hours of light. Sometimes this is in 

 some cavern or hollow tree, but frequently some deserted house is taken 

 for a home, and instances are on record where thousands have made their 

 headquarters in the attic of a dwelling, emerging after night to the great 



