1691.] FLYING FOXES. 85 



of a midling aud equal bigness; when they are young, their 

 Mesh is as good as that of young Pigeons. 



There are Purrs^ and a few Swallows.'^ 



The Batts^ fly there by day as well as other Birds ; they 

 are as big as a good Hen, and each wing is near two Foot 

 long. They never Perch, but hang by their Feet to the 

 Boughs of Trees, with their Head downwards, and their 

 Wings being supply 'd with several Hooks, they do not easily 

 fall tho' they are struck.^ When you see them at a Distance, 

 hanging thus wrapt up in their Wings, you wou'd take them 

 rather for Fruit than Birds. The Dutch whom I knew at 

 Maurice Island, made a rare Dish with them, and preferr'd it 

 to the most Delicate Wild-Fowl. Every Man has his Tast ; 

 As for us, we found something in these Batts that we did 

 not like, and having a great many things that were much 



of changes having taken place in the fauna of that island. See his 

 Memoire sur un Psittacus fossile de Vile de Rudriyue (Psitlacus roderi- 

 canus) in Ann. des Sc. nat. Zool. (5), viii, 145. The parrots, however, 

 referred to in our text were of moderate size, and may probably have 

 been Palieornis exid, of which a living specimen was seen in the island by 

 Mr. Slater in 1874. (Cf. Phil. Trans. R. S., I. c, pp. 430 and 459.) 



1 Purrs, probably a species of sandpiper, or perhaps small plovers, for 

 Leguat could not distinguish them. 



- In orig. : " II y a des alloiiettes de mer et des Becassines. Nous 

 n'avons vu que tres-peu d'hirondelles." 



3 Flying-foxes, Pteropus Edwardsii. Pingre, who touched at Rod- 

 riguez in 1761, during his voyage for the observation of the Transit 

 of Venus, gives some interesting details on these flying-foxes. Those 

 he saw were the size of a pigeon, but longer; the head like that of 

 a fox ; the skin reddish, darker on the head and neck than on the rest 

 of the body ; the wings dark grey ; when extended they may have 

 measured a foot or a foot and a half. These animals are still extant 

 at Rodriguez, but no materials have hitherto been accessible for their 

 identification. M. Milne Edwards is inclined to think they are not 

 Pteropus Edwardsii, a much larger species inhabiting Madagascar, nor 

 Pteropus vulgaris of the island of Mauritius, also a larger type. {Ann. 

 des Sc. nat. Zool., 5me serie, xix, art. 3.) 



* "Ellesdemeurenttoujours attachees par quelque crochet," omitted 

 by translator. 



