PROTECTIVE COLORS OF BATS 
industry; or tropical species may take a mixed diet, and such 
have peculiar, brush-tipped tongues. The fur is usually some 
hue of brown or gray, but a few Orien- 
tal species are mottled or variegated 
with orange, bright yellow, black, and 
so on, most strikingly displayed in the 
painted bat of Ceylon, which is deep 
orange with varicolored wings. It  BRUSH-ToNcuED Bat. 
haunts the forest, says Jerdon, hiding by day in the folded leaf 
of a plantain, and when disturbed in the sunlight looks more 
like a butterfly than a bat. 
One would think such a gaudy dress dangerously conspicuous, but it 
will not do to pronounce upon such a matter until we are thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the wild habits of the wearer. Mr. Swinhoe, a enous 
diligent and sagacious naturalist long resident in China, informs ment by 
us that in fact the colors are highly protective. He describes Color. 
one of these brilliant bats, native to Formosa, as resorting almost exclu- 
sively to the longan tree. ‘‘Now this tree is an evergreen; and all the year 
through some portion of its foliage is undergoing decay, the particular 
leaves being in such a stage partially orange and black. This bat can 
therefore at all seasons suspend from its branches, and elude its enemies 
by its resemblance to the leaf of the tree. It was in August when this speci- 
men was brought me. It had at that season found the fruit ripe and red- 
dish yellow, and had tried to escape observation in the resemblance of its 
own tints to those of the fruit.” Dobson reaches the same conclusion re- 
garding the red hue of the Indian fox bats; and other instances are quoted 
by Dr. Dallas, who has given an extensive and interesting account of the 
bats of the world in ‘‘Cassell’s Natural History,” Vol. I. 
In the United States we have about eighteen species of bats 
(See Allen’s*® and Miller’s*® monographs), nearly all of the 
family Vespertilionide, half a dozen of which are familiar in 
the east and several others on the Pacific coast; and entertain- 
ing accounts of their habits are given by Bachman, *® Godman,” 
Merriam,"® Fisher,®*' and others; while much about those of 
the West Indies will be found in Gosse’s® book on Jamaica. 
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