THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
roosting by day on chosen trees, where they hang by one hind 
leg, each protected from the sun’s glare, and from rain, in the 
closely wrapped mantle of its wings, and large branches fre- 
quently break under the weight. At sunset they fly away to 
their feeding grounds, scattering over a wide area. Where a 
Riotous fig tree attracts a crowd, the roughest fighting begins 
diving. over coveted plunder, each one screaming, clawing, 
biting, and struggling to seize something and get away to a 
secure retreat to enjoy it. “There he hangs by one foot, and, 
grasping the fruit he has secured in the claws and opposable 
thumb of the other, he hastily reduces it to lumps, with which 
he stuffs his cheek pouches until they become distended like 
those of a monkey.” Later he chews and swallows this food 
at leisure. At dawn all return to their roosts, and, says Tickell, 
‘hook themselves along the branches, scrambling about hand 
over hand with some speed, biting each other severely, striking 
out with the long claw of the thumb, shrieking and cackling 
without intermission.” No doubt these squabbles are rendered 
more violent by the disgracefully dissipated habits in which the 
bats indulge during their nocturnal expeditions, for, according 
to Dr. Francis Day and other observers, ‘‘they often pass the 
night drinking the toddy from the chatties in the cocoanut 
trees, which results either in their returning home in the early 
morning in a state of extreme and riotous intoxication, or in 
being found the next day at the foot of the trees, sleeping off 
the effects of their midnight debauch.” 
The larger fruit bats are eaten by the natives of their countries, 
and liked by white men when carefully skinned and cooked; 
nevertheless the bat pronounced unclean food by Mosaic law 
(Deut. xiv. 18; Lev. xi. 19) was of this kind. They are some- 
times tamed as affectionate pets. 
Few animals have acquired a worse reputation among the 
ignorant and superstitious than bats, — and less deserve it; 
nor is it likely that those of America or Europe would have 
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