252 



BATS. 



THE FRUIT-BATS. 

 Family PTEROPODID^:. 



The largest of all bats are the so-called flying foxes, or fruit-bats, of the 

 warmer regions of the Old World, which differ from the other members of the order 

 in their purely frugivorous habits, and in certain details of structure partly caused 

 by adaptation to their special mode of life. It is highly probable, as Professor T. 

 Bell observes, that some of these huge fruit-bats " with their predatory habits, their 

 multitudinous numbers, their obscure and mysterious retreats, and the strange 

 combination of beast and bird which they were believed to possess, gave to Virgil 

 the idea, which he has so poetically worked out, of the harpies which fell upon the 

 hastily-spread tables of his hero and his companions, and polluted, whilst they 

 devoured, the feast from which they had driven the affrighted guests." 



SKELETON OP FRUIT-BAT (^ nat. size). 



Since the fruit-bats differ so essentially from all the other members of the 

 order, both in habits and structure, they are not only referred by naturalists to a 

 separate family, the Pteropodidce, but are likewise distinguished as a special 

 suborder, appropriately termed the Megachiroptera, or large bats. 



As a group, the fruit-bats are characterised by their generally large size, and 

 by the peculiar nature of their teeth, as well as by certain features connected with 

 the wings, ears, and tail. As regards the teeth, they are characterised by the 

 molars having nearly, or quite smooth crowns, elongated from back to front, and 

 divided by a deep longitudinal groove ; such a type of tooth being obviously as 

 admirably adapted for mashing up pulpy fruits, as the cusped teeth of ordinary 

 bats would be unsuited. The wings of fruit-bats may be at once distinguished 

 from those of all other kinds by having three (instead of one or rarely two) joints in 



