294 MOUNT EDGECUMBE. 



discovered. Some labourers, felling a decayed Thatch- 

 Palm (Thrinax), found the hollow trunk to be 

 tenanted by Bats, in such aggregated numbers, that 

 my informant, who brought me the specimen, de- 

 clared that he could have filled a large basket with 

 them. He took five, but all escaped, except the 

 present individual, which he brought to me. Many 

 of them, he said, were larger than this, but he de- 

 scribed them all as being " like " it. This was about 

 the end of January. 



A month afterwards, I had proof that these state- 

 ments were worthy of more credit than I had at 

 first assigned to them. On knocking down another 

 Thatch-palm, there was found in the hollow of the 

 trunk another immense assemblage of Bats. A large 

 cuttacoo, or negro's basket, was presented to me, 

 which, on being uncovered, displayed a pretty scene 

 of dusky life. The " pie " of our infant days, that 

 contained " four and twenty blackbirds " all ready 

 to sing, was nothing to it. Fifty bats, all alive and 

 kicking, were huddled into the narrow space ; an 

 arrangement which, considering their natural pro- 

 pensities, was probably not very disagreeable to 

 them. I examined forty- three, a few escaping from 

 the crowd ; and if I was surprised before at the ex- 

 tent of their gregarious habits, I was still more as- 

 tonished to find that of this number, every one was 

 of the male sex, as had been the one formerly ex- 

 amined. The habit so strongly reminded me of a 

 herd of monks, shutting themselves up in a convent, 

 that I thought the species might well be designated 

 as the Monk Bat. 



