FISH-EATING BATS 239 



continued swish, swish, in the water without 

 believing it. If so, the habit is a quaint change of 

 nature in them, for they belong, I am assured by 

 my friend Professor Newton, not to the insect- 

 eating but to the fruit-eating family of bats, ^ which 

 in the West as in the East Indies may be seen at 

 night hovering round the mango trees and destroy- 

 ing much more fruit than they eat." 



The story was revived in The J^ze/d oi July 14, 

 1888, by Dr G. H. Kingsley, who had also visited 

 Trinidad during the cruise of the Northumbria, 

 and who, like his brother, had watched the move- 

 ments of the bats in question, and listened to the 

 statements of the natives concerning them. With 

 a praiseworthy desire to ascertain the truth of the 

 alleged fishing propensities, he floated about on 

 many a hot evening to see how it was done ; but 

 though he was close to them — close enough to be 

 nauseated by their detestable odour — he could 

 never quite make up his mind on the subject. On 

 the whole, he was inclined to accept the native idea 

 that they scoop them off the surface with the 

 interfemoral membrane ; and he concludes : 

 " However it was done, they certainly did catch 

 fish, and eat them, for I found fish scales and 

 bones in their stomachs, and had microscopical 

 slides prepared to prove it." 



Here, at last, was something definite to go 



upon ; and a letter addressed to Dr Kingsley 



1 This is a misapprehension, based possibly on what has been 

 stated by Linnaeus in regard to its food, as already quoted. 

 There are no representatives of the fruit-eating Pferopodidce in 

 America. 



