66 



ORDERS OF MAMMALS— BATS 



small birds. It has very large ears, an elaborate 

 nose-leaf, a head-ancl-body length of 3 inches 

 and a wing expanse of 1(3 inches. 



THE FAMILY OF HORSESHOE BATS. 



Rhinolophidae. 



This Family contains thirty species of small 

 bats, all of which are restricted to the Old World. 



THE FAMILY OF FRUIT-EATING BATS. 



Pteropodidac. 



The members of this Family are bats of very 

 large size, with fox-like heads, dense and abun- 

 dant pelage, large eyes, and free tails when tails 

 are present. They are quite diurnal in their 

 habits, and feed almost exclusively upon fruit. 

 They inhabit India, Ceylon, the Malay Archi- 

 pelago and eastern Australia, and are almost 

 the only bats that find their way into captivity 

 for exhibition purposes. They are very socia- 

 ble in their habits, and live in colonies of from 

 five to fifty individuals. 



The Flying "Fox." ' The largest of the bats 

 which we occasionally see darting through the 

 gloaming with irregular, jerky flight, are about 

 as large as purple martens, — tiny creatures, 

 weak, and quite incapable of offence. In the 

 East Indies, however, and also Australia, there 

 are bats of enormous size. These are known 

 as Fruit Bats, or Flying "Foxes." Some of 

 those shot by the author in Ceylon had wings 

 which spread forty inches. 



On one occasion I found the top of a small 

 tree, about fifty feet high, filled with these ani- 

 mals. They hung head downward from the 

 upper branches, in places so thickly as to crowd 

 each other, — quarrelling, squealing shrilly, and 

 climbing about. To see nearly a hundred bats 

 of such huge size hanging in one tree-top, quite 

 at home in the broad glare of a tropical after- 

 noon sun, was a strange and impressive sight. I 

 had been asked to procure and preserve for 

 American museums six dozen specimens of that 

 species, and when after long observation I finally 

 fired into the bunch, the black and brown cloud 

 of giant bats that rose in the air, and slowly 

 1 Pter'o-pus ed'wards-i. 



flapped away, was one of the most grewsome 

 sights I ever saw in animal life. Of all creatures 

 that fly, none are so thoroughly uncanny when 

 outlined against the sky as the big, black-winged, 

 half-naked Flying "Fox." They suggest de- 

 mons and calamities. 



The Flying " Fox " derives its name from the 

 resemblance of its head to that of a very small 

 fox. It feeds wholly upon fruit, and when it 

 inhabits well-settled districts it is cordially dis- 

 liked by every person who owns a fruit-tree. In 

 some portions of Australia, these creatures have 

 done great damage to fruit, and energetic meas- 

 ures, such as the explosion of dynamite among 

 them, have been resorted to for their destruc- 

 tion. 



Some of the fruit-growers of California are so 

 apprehensive of this creature, and so fearful 

 that it might 'be "introduced," they have se- 

 cured the passage of a law, by which the im- 

 portation of the Flying "Fox" is prohibited 

 so rigidly that not one specimen can be imported, 

 even for exhibition in a zoological garden. As 

 a matter of fact, this fear of the presence of the 

 Flying " Fox " in the United States is quite as 

 groundless as the old fear of being quill-shot by 

 Canada porcupines. It certainly would be very 

 difficult to introduce that species, and keep it 

 from being exterminated, except possibly in 

 some of our insular possessions. 



In the Flying 

 "Fox" Family is 

 found another re- 

 markable variation 

 in bat physiognomy, 

 the Hammer-Head- 

 ed Bat, 2 a species 

 discovered in the 

 land of the gorilla, 

 by Du Chaillu. The 

 head of the animal 

 is of large propor- 

 tions as compared 

 with the body, and 

 the muzzle is enormously enlarged. In general 

 outline, the head in profile is much like the head 

 of a moose. This is quite a large bat, its wing 

 expanse being 28 inches. 



2 Ep-o-moph'o-rus. 



HAMMER-HEADED BAT. 

 (After Joseph Wolf.) 



