THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
One extraordinary sub-family contains the large carnivorous 
‘false vampires” of India (Megaderma), which kill and feed 
upon small animals, chiefly frogs. In respect to the obscure 
breeding habits of our North American bats, Stone and Cram ” 
offer the following information : — 
‘Awake, at the most, some four out of every twenty-four hours of their 
drowsy little lives, they never make any nests or even attempt to fix over 
the crannies where they hide and where the little bats are born. These 
helpless things are not left at home at the mercy of foraging rats and mice. 
When the old bat flits off into the twilight the youngsters go with her from 
the first, clinging about her neck, swinging away over the tree tops, and 
along the foggy water-side, while she chases the numberless little flying 
things of the dark. When there are twins the he bat takes his share of the 
responsibility, and carries them about with him until they are able to look 
out for themselves. 
“One summer two little bats were discovered hanging close together on 
the branch of a low tree on the lawn; during the day-time the parent re- 
mained with them, folding her wings about them, but at dusk she generally 
left them while she foraged for food. After a couple of days, however, 
they disappeared, doubtless transferred to some other spot safe from pry- 
ing eyes.” 
The fruit-eating bats (Megachiroptera) must have a few 
words. Some fifteen genera and seventy species are distributed 
from South Africa to Japan, Australia, and Polynesia. 
None has expanded ears, or nose leaves, or membranes 
between the tail and the thighs. The smaller species (one 
weighing only an ounce) are often very peculiar, —as the 
harpies, whose nostrils protrude as tubes; the strange hairless 
bat of Borneo, which, having no hair to which a baby could 
cling, carries its young in an abdominal pouch; or the larger 
West African hammerhead, whose muzzle is swollen into a 
grotesque form. A well-known species is the Egyptian rousette, 
which abounds in the orchards of the Nile delta, and gorges 
itself on the fruit of the doleb palm. The ordinary fruit eaters, 
however, are those forty or more species of Madagascar, India, 
64 
Fruit Bats. 
