246 RHINOLOPHID^— RHINOLOPHUS 



Horseshoes to activity, even when, as was often the case after 

 eating two or three beetles, their heads were drooping, and 

 they were relapsing into sleep. Usually the bat left its foot- 

 hold immediately the beetle began to buzz, and as these beetles 

 are not always quick in getting on to the wing, the bat 

 frequently skimmed over and missed its prey. But when the 

 beetle had risen two or three inches from the ground, it was 

 doomed ; the bat came down like a falcon stooping, and with 

 marvellous precision caught the flying beetle in its jaws, and 

 carried it off to some place where it could pitch and devour it. 

 For several weeks this performance was repeated on an average 

 two or three times each night, and though on a few occasions 

 the beetle got well into the air before it was captured, by far the 

 greater number were secured before they had risen many inches 

 from the ground." 



In feeding, the Horseshoes differ from the typical bats 

 in one marked particular. The interfemoral membrane being 

 too small for use as a pouch, they usually requisition the 

 posterior part of the wing to enable them to hold an insect 

 of troublesome proportions. When dealing with a beetle, Mr 

 Coward's bats always fluttered their wings rapidly, as if almost 

 worrying it with the rapid movements of the head. These move- 

 ments recalled the vibration of an insect's wings rather than 

 the ordinary struggle of a bat when held in the hand. The 

 process was first observed by Mr Coward in his captive 

 specimens. A large beetle was thrust into the natural bag, 

 the claws of the corresponding leg "were usually released from 

 their hold, and the whole wing brought suddenly forward, by 

 simultaneous stroke of arm and leg, to meet the head. The 

 beetle was practically beaten against the membrane by rapid 

 movement of the bat's head, assisted by the forward stroke of 

 the wing. This wing-action, suggestive of the uses of a hand, 

 has no exact parallel in the apparently similar use of the inter- 

 femoral pouch by vespertilionid bats. The beetle was moved by 

 the bat against the membrane, for its position in the mouth had 

 frequently to be shifted before the bat could devour the abdomen 

 and reject the head, and sometimes the action of head and wing 

 together actually pushed the beetle further into the mouth. 

 When the beetle was first seized the wingfs of the bat were 



