REYIEWS — NATURAL HISTORY OF CE\LON. 349 



animal is enabled during the darkness to direct its motions with security, avoid- 

 ing objects against contact with which at such times its eyes and other senses 

 would be insufficient to protect it. Spallanzani ascertained the perfection of 

 this faculty by a series of cruel experiments, by which he demonstrated that bats, 

 even after their eyes had been destroyed, and their external organs of smell and 

 hearing obliterated, were still enabled to direct their flight with unhesitating 

 confidence, avoiding even threads suspended to intercept them. But after ascer- 

 taining the fact, Spallanzani was slow to arrive at its origin ; and ascribed the 

 surprising power to the existence of some sixth supplementary sense, the enjoy- 

 ment of which was withheld from other animals, Cuvier, however, dissipated 

 the obscurity by showing the seat of this extraordinary endowment to be in the 

 wings, the superficies of which retains the exquisite sensitiveness to touch that is 

 inherent in the palms of the human hand and the extremeties of the fingers, as 

 well as in the feet of some of the mammalia. The face and head of the Pteropus 

 are covered with brownish-grey hairs, the neck and chest are dark ferruginous 

 grey, and the rest of the body brown, inclining to black. 



" These active and energetic creatures, though chiefly frugivorous, are to some 

 extent insectivorous also, as attested by their teeth, as well as by their habits. 

 They feed, amongst other things, on the guava, the plantain, the rose-apple, and 

 the fruit of the various fig-trees. Flying foxes are abundant in all the maritime 

 districts, especially at the season when the pulum-imbnl, one of the silk-cotton 

 trees, is putting forth its flower- buds, of which they are singularly fond. By 

 day they suspend themselves from the highest branches, hanging by the claws of 

 the hind legs, with the head turned upwards, and pressing the chin against the 

 breast. At sunset taking wing, they hover, with a murmuring sound occasioned 

 by the beating of their broad membranous wings, around the fruit trees on 

 which they feed till morning, when they resume their pensile attitude as before. 



" A favourite resort of these bats is to the lofty india-rubber trees, which on 

 one side overhang the Botanic Gardens of Paradenia, in the vicinity of Kandy. 

 Thither, for some years past, they have congregated, chiefly in the autumn, 

 taking their departure when the figs of the Jicus elastica are consumed. Here 

 they hang in such prodigious numbers, that frequently large branches give way 

 beneath their accumulated weight. Every forenoon, generally between the hours 

 of 9 and 11a. m., they take towing, apparently for exercise, and possibly to sun 

 their wings and fur, and dry them after the dews of the early morning. On 

 these occasions their numbers are quite surprising, flying in clouds as thick as 

 bees or midges. After these recreations they hurry back to their favourite trees, 

 chattering and screaming like monkeys, and always wrangling and contending 

 angrily for the most shady and comfortable places in which to hang for the rest 

 of the day protected from the sun. The branches they resort to soon become 

 almost divested of leaves, these being stripped ofiF by the action of the bats, at- 

 taching and detaching themselves by means of their hooked feet. At sunset, 

 they fly off to their feeding-grounds, probably at a considerable distance, as it 

 requires a large area to furnish sufficient food for such multitudes. 



" In all its movements and attitudes, the action of the Pteropus is highly in- 

 teresting. If placed upon the ground, it is almost helpless, none of its limbs 



