TRUE BATS. 



103 



shown in the illustration on the previous 

 page, preferring such trees as have hori- 

 zontal branches; and often enormous crowds 

 of them are to be found in that position 

 together. They do not particularly seek for 

 shade or darkness, but they are so wrapt up 

 in their wings that it seems as if hundreds 

 of colossal pear-shaped fruits were hanging 

 from the trees. 



About dusk, or even before it, they fly 

 away in search of their food, which consists 

 not only of fruits but also of small mammals 

 and birds, and even of fishes. Trustworthy 

 observers have seen kalongs hovering like 

 falcons over ponds in which small fish 

 were playing, and then, darting down upon 

 the fish, seize them with their feet, carry 

 them away, and consume them. In their 

 native countries they are often snared in 

 nets. Their flesh is said by some to have, 

 when macerated, somewhat of the taste of 

 hare's flesh, by others to have a disgusting 

 taste like that of foxes. In some parts the 

 captive animals are fed and reared, but in 

 others very few eat them. 



In a state of freedom they live together 

 peaceably, and quarrels and fights, always 

 accompanied by screeching noises, only occur 

 in the seeking out of sleeping-quarters and 

 at the pairing season. At the cry of wounded 

 kalongs their companions assemble together, 

 apparently to aflbrd help. 



Kalongs have been brought to Europe 

 repeatedly, but even those which I saw in 

 London, where they were kept in a roomy 

 hall in which they could fly about freely, did 

 not survive long. Most of them were apt 

 to bite, but some were good-natured. 



Allied genera with a short tail (Cyno- 

 nycteris) occur in Africa, among other places 

 in Egypt. 



A graphic description is given by the celebrated 

 buccaneer and naturalist William Dampier, of the 

 setting out of these large bats on their nightly 

 expeditions as observed by him in the Philippine 

 Islands. The bats were found in " incredible num- 



ber" on a small low woody island, not above a 

 mile in circumference, about a mile from the shore 

 of a larger island. "In the evening as soon as the 

 sun was set, these creatures would begin to take 

 their flight from this island, in swarms like bees, 

 directing their flight over to the main island, and 

 whither afterwards I know not. Thus we should 

 see them rising up from the island till night hin- 

 dered our sight, and in the morning, as soon as it 

 was light, we should see them returning again like 

 a cloud to the small island till the sunrising. This 

 course they kept constantly while we lay here, 

 afibrding us every morning and evening an hour's 

 diversion in gazing at them and talking about 

 them." 



Along with this it is interesting to read .an 

 account by another observer of the mode in which 

 they take up their quarters for the day. " From 

 the arrival of the first comer until the sun is high 

 above the horizon, a scene of incessant wrangling 

 and contention is enacted among them, as each 

 endeavours to secure a higher and better place, or 

 to eject a neighbour from too close vicinage. In 

 these struggles the bats hook themselves along the 

 branches, scrambling about hand over hand with 

 some speed, biting each other severely, striking out 

 with the long claw of the thumb, shrieking and 

 cackling without intermission. Each new arrival 

 is compelled to fly several times round the tree, 

 being threatened from all points, and when he 

 eventually hooks on he has to go through a series 

 of combats, and be probably ejected two or three 

 times before he makes good his tenure." — Tickell, 

 in a memoir published in the Calcutta Journal of 

 Natural History, quoted by Jerdon in his Mammals 

 of India. 



THE INSECT-EATING BATS 



(ENTOMOPHAGA). 



Our native bats all belong to this group, in which the 

 molars have sharp cusps fitting into one another, a 

 short snout, and only one claw on the wing- limb, 

 namely, on the first digit or thumb. Two families 

 are distinguished. 



True Bats or Vespertilionidse {Gymnorhina). 



The simple nose at the extremity of the snout without leaf- 

 like appendages. 



This, the most numerous family, is dis- 

 tributed over the whole earth, and although 



