THE CAROLINA BAT 169 



(blood) requiring very little digestion. A capacious 

 cavity is, however, needed for its reception, and accord- 

 ingly the part of the stomach on the right of the gullet 

 is not dilated into a mere capacious sack, as in the sheep, 

 but is drawn out into an enormously long and w^ide tube, 

 capable of containing a large quantity of fluid. So greedy, 

 however, is this bat that it will continue to suck blood 

 after its capacious intestines are entirely filled with it, 

 the blood first drawn escaping from the latter while 

 fresh blood is being sucked in by the mouth. 



It is now time to notice the other great primary section 

 of the order of bats — namely, the flying foxes. 



Of these, as before said, about eighty species are known, 

 none of them being American. They range from Asia 

 Minor and Egypt through Africa and Asia to Australia, 

 the Fiji, and Duke of York's, and Navigator's Islands 

 and New Ireland. None are found in Tasmania or New 

 Zealand. Among these are found the largest of all bats. 

 The body may be a foot long and the outstretched wings 

 measure five feet across. They are also the most brightly 

 coloured and the most varied in tint. Only in one species 

 is there a long tail ; in all the others it is short, or may 

 be entirely absent. The first finger of the wing generally 

 bears a claw. These bats feed on fruit and not on insects, 

 and therefore their teeth, instead of bristling with sharp 

 points, are smooth, save that they each bear a longitudinal 

 furrow. 



The stomach is not rounded, as in most bats, but 

 elongated. Its elongation, however, is just the opposite 

 of that of the blood-sucking desmodus, and it is the 

 left or digestive portion of the organ which is 

 elongated. 



The largest of these bats is that known as the kalong. 

 It inhabits the Indian Archipelago, extending from 



