The Bats and Insect'eating Mammals 



167 



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I'lioto li/J'mtdli.Alinari] [Florence. 



PinsTHK.LLK BAT. 

 This is one of the conininnest of the British liats. It is tlie first to ;i]nie;ir in tlie springs and the last to retire at the fall of the 3'ear. 



Ceylon, was some incliarubber-trees, " where they used to assemble in such ^'fodigious numbers 

 that large bouglis would not infrequently give way beneath the accumulated weight of the 

 flock." An observer in Calcutta relates that they occasionally travel in vast hordes, so great 

 as to darken the sky. Whether they are performing some preconcerted migration or bent 

 only on a foray to some distant feeding- ground is a matter for speculation. These hordes are 

 cj^uite distinct from the "long strings" which may be seen every evening in Calcutta on their 

 way to neighbouring fruit-trees. 



One of the most remarkable of this group is the Tuj3E-nosed Fkuit-bat, in which the 

 nostrils are prolonged into a ]iair of relatively long tubes. Strangely enough, a group of 

 insect-eating bats has developed similar though smaller tubes. Excejjt in these bats, such 

 tubes are unknown among mammals. Their function is not known. 



Insect- EATING Bats. 



The vast majority of the bats comprising this group feed exclusively on insects. Some, 

 however, have acquired the habit of 

 fruit-eating, like the true fruit-bats; 

 and a few have developed quite ogre- 

 like habits, for they drink blood — 

 indeed, they subsist upon nothing else. 

 This they obtain from animals larger 

 than themselves. 



jMany of the bats of this group 

 have developed curious leaf-like expan- 

 sions of skin around the nose and mouth, 

 which are supposed to be endowed 

 with a very delicate sense of touch. 

 In some, as in the Flower-nosed Bat, 

 the nose-leaf is excessively developed, 

 forming a large rosette. The upper 

 border of this rosette is furnished with 

 three stalked balls, the function of 

 which it is surmised is probably orna- 

 mental — from the bat's point of view. n.oioi.f/ a. .-i.-iU'dia.Ki a,-.^o„s. 

 To our more aesthetic taste the wliole . leaf-xosed eat. 



effect is hideous. The leaf-nosed are the most highly organised of all the bats. The remarkable 



leaf -like folds of skin around the nose or ehin, as the case may be, serve as delicate 

 Limited as is our space, we organs of perception. There are ntmierotrs species of leaf-nosed bats. 



