TEE DOCILE MAMMALS. 



247 



not the true vampires, are known to enter houses and to 

 suck the blood of sleeping persons, who awake to find their 

 feet covered with blood. 



The largest bats are the fruit-bats or flying foxes {Ptero- 

 pus) of the East Indies ; one species of which expands one 

 and a half metres (nearly five feet) from tip to tip of the 

 wings. They assemble in large flocks in the Moluccas to 

 eat fruit, hanging by day in thousands on the trees. 



Fi8. 346. Skeleton of a Fruit bat {Pteropus). 



The Whales. — The transition from the bats to the whales 

 is a startling one, and they are not nearly related. In 

 whales, as in the remaining orders of mammals, the brain is 

 larger, with convolutions on the cerebral hemispheres. 



Here, again, we see how remarkably well adapted the 

 body of the whale is to its needs. A whale is by no means 

 a fish, but the body is fish-like in shape, being adapted for 

 swimming and diving in the sea. Having no need of hind 

 limbs, they are wanting, and the front limbs are modified 

 in a sin^lar way to serve as paddles (Pig. 247). More- 



