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THE FOX-BAT. 491 



to his angels the white pinions of the swan, while his demons 

 are made to bear the black wings of the bat. And yet the bat, 

 in Europe at least, is a most inoffensive creature, which may 

 well claim the gratitude of the farmer, from the vast numbers 

 of cockchafers and other noxious insects which it destroys ; 

 while a closer inspection of its wonderful organisation proves it 

 to be far more deserving of admiration than of repugnance. 

 Can anything be better adapted to its wants than the delicate 

 membrane which, extending over the long slim fingers, can be 

 spread and folded like an umbrella, so as to form a wing when 

 the animal wishes to fly, and to collapse into a small space 

 when it is at rest ? How slight the bones, how light the body, 

 how beautifully formed for flight ! 



Though temperate Europe possesses many bats, yet they are 

 most numerous and various in the woody regions of the tropical 

 zone, where the vast numbers of the insect tribes and forest 

 fruits afford them a never-failing supply of food. There also 

 they attain a size unknown in our latitudes, so that both from 

 their dimensions and their physiognomy, many of the larger 

 species have obtained the name of flying-dogs or flying-foxes. 



On approaching a Javanese village, you will sometimes see a 

 stately tree, from whose branches hundreds of large black fruits 

 seem to be suspended. A strong smell of ammonia and a piping 

 noise soon, however, convince you of your mistake, and a closer 

 inspection proves them to be a large troop of Kalongs, or Plying- 

 Foxes {Ptei'opus), attached head downwards to the tree, where 

 they rest or sleep during the daytime, and which they generally 

 quit at sunset, though some of them differ so much from the 

 usual habits of the family as to fly about in the broad light of 

 day. 



Many species of fox-bats are found all over the torrid zone 

 in the Old World, but they abound particularly in the East 

 Indian Alrchipelago. They belong to the rare quadrupeds in- 

 digenous in some of the South Sea Islands, such as Tonga or 

 Samoa, and extend northwards as far as Japan, and southwards 

 to Van Diemen's Land. They occasion incalculable mischief 

 in the plantations, devouring indiscriminately every kind of 

 fruit ; but, on the other hand, the gigantic kalong of Java 

 (Pteropus edulis), whose body attains a length of a foot and a 

 half, and whose outstretched wings measure no less than four 



