282 BATS. 



when it can use both its claws, teeth, arid prehensile tail to aid its movements. 

 The bat, on the other hand, had to seek its living in the empty air, pursuing its 

 prey with the swiftness of a swallow, " and it seemed wonderful to me," writes 

 Mr. Hudson, " that she should have been able to carry about that great burden 

 with her on one pair of wings, and withal to be active enough to supply herself 

 and her young with food. In the end I released her, and saw her fly away 

 among the trees, after which I put back the two young bats in the place I 

 had taken them from, among the thick-clustering foliage of a small acacia tree. 

 When set free they began to work their way upwards through the leaves and 

 slender twigs in the most adroit manner, catching a twig with their teeth, then 

 embracing a whole cluster of leaves with their wings, just as a person would take 

 up a quantity of loose clothes and hold them tightly by pressing them against the 

 chest. The body would then emerge above the clasped leaves, and a higher twig 

 would be caught by the teeth, and so on successively, until they had got as high as 

 they wished, when they proceeded to hook themselves to a twig and assume the 

 inverted position side by side ; after which, one drew in its head and went to sleep, 

 while the other began licking the end of its wing, where my finger and thumb had 

 pressed the delicate membrane. Later in the day I attempted to feed them with 

 some small insects, but they rejected my friendly attentions in the most unmis- 

 takable manner, snapping viciously at me every time I approached them. In the 

 evening I stationed myself close to the tree, and presently had the satisfaction of 

 seeing the mother return, flying straight to the spot where I had taken her, and in 

 a few minutes she was away again and over the trees with her twins." 



As the narrator well remarks, this incident is noteworthy not only as a touching 

 instance of parental affection, but likewise for the circumstance that the young 

 bats, which up to the time of their capture had existed in a kind of parasitical 

 condition, when thrown upon the world were quite capable of taking care of them- 

 selves. In other Mammals born in a helpless state, the power of accommodating 

 themselves to new conditions, and the instinct of self-preservation, are acquired 

 gradually, whereas in these young bats they were assumed in a moment. 



THE TUBE-NOSED BATS. 

 Genus Harpy iocephalus. 



The production of the nostrils into a pair of tubes has already been noticed as 

 distinctive of a genus of fruit-bats (p. 259), and it is, to say the least, remarkable to 

 find the same feature reappearing in a less marked degree in a group of insectivor- 

 ous bats belonging to the Vespertilionidce. These tube-nosed bats, constituting the 

 genus Harpy iocephalus , are restricted to Tibet, India, Ceylon, and the Malay 

 Archipelago, and Japan, where they always inhabit hilly districts. They are 

 sufficiently distinguished at a glance from all the other insect-eating bats by their 

 divergent tube-like nostrils, of which the apertures are circular. It may, however, 

 be added that their teeth are 34 in number, of which there are on each side f 

 incisors, a single canine, and f cheek-teeth. Moreover, the upper surface of the 

 membrane between the hind legs is characterised by its thick covering of hair. 



