THE EPAULETTED FRUIT BAT 



should be, to every resident in the eastern parts of 

 the Cape Province, Natal, Transvaal, and Rhodesia, 

 for they are common in parks, gardens, and adjacent 

 bush-lands. All fruit-growers are well acquainted 

 with the Fruit Bat, for, as its name implies, its diet 

 consists of fruit. It is nocturnal, but is sometimes 

 seen flying among the trees shortly after sundown. 



Ripe fruit is easy of digestion, and as it is a watery 

 diet, a considerable quantity is necessary to be eaten 

 to provide the requisite food-elements for the bodily 

 needs of this large bat. It knows this full well, for 

 its appetite is prodigious. In captivity I fed one of 

 these bats on bananas, and when allowed to eat to 

 repletion it actually ate four times its own bulk and 

 weight of bananas in one day. The havoc wrought 

 in fruit gardens by the Fruit Bat is very great. All 

 kinds of fruit are eaten. The Epauletted Fruit Bat 

 has two ways of dining. By a special adaptation of 

 the gullet, windpipe, and lips it is able to make an 

 efficient suction engine of its mouth. Finding a 

 nice, soft, ripe fruit, it is enveloped by the flabby, 

 indiarubber-like lips, which close tight around it. 

 The suction apparatus is then set working, and the 

 pulpy contents of the fruit are quickly extracted and 

 swallowed. The skin and pip or stone are rejected. 

 These bats are particularly fond of ripe figs, and 

 prefer them to almost any other kind of fruit. How- 

 ever, they levy a heavy toll upon all kinds of fruit. 



A friend, thinking to outwit these destructive 

 bats, enveloped his ripening figs in muslin bags ; but 



