THE TROPICAL FOREST 103 



air is less complete than in the insect-eating forms, the 

 arrangement of the tail apparently preventing them 

 from giving those sharp turns so necessary in an animal 

 which feeds on insects caught on the wing. Further, 

 as the fruit-bats feed in trees they are more arboreal in 

 habitat, being able to scramble about the trees, attach- 

 ing themselves by the hind feet, and by the strongly 

 hooked thumb of the hand. Similarly the index finger 

 is not reduced to the rudimentary condition seen in 

 other bats, where it is useless, and is here usually fur- 

 nished with a claw. Fruit-bats spear their food with 

 the claw of the thumb, and have teeth so modified as 

 to allow them to crush pulpy fruits. From the diet 

 the animals must necessarily have been once confined 

 to regions where wild fruits were abundant, but, like 

 some members of the order Primates, they have taken 

 advantage of man's fondness for fruit to extend their 

 range to regions where his plantations can be robbed. / 

 In Australia, where wild fruits are somewhat rare, the ^ 

 fruit-bats seem to devour the flowers of the eucalyptus, 

 but the way in which they raid the orchards of the 

 fruit-growers shows that fruit is greatly preferred when 

 it can be obtained. 



In the forests of tropical America there occurs an 

 interesting family of bats, the Phyllostomatidae, or 

 vampire bats, some of whose members present a curious 

 analogy to the fruit-eating bats of the Old World. The 

 vampire bats belong to the insect-eating section (Micro- 

 chiroptera) of bats, but nevertheless some of them eat 

 fruit only. Others eat fruit and insects, while others 

 again are purely blood-suckers. 



We have already pointed out that insectivores are 

 peculiarly helpless animals, without the intelligence 

 which enables many of the Primates to escape from 



