Chap. L] BATS. ' 13 
approach its prey so stealthily that it seizes birds before 
they can be alarmed by its presence. The natives assert 
that it has been known to strangle the pea-fowl at night, 
to feast on the brain. During the day the one which I 
kept was usually asleep in the strange position repre- 
sented on the last page ; its perch firmly grasped with 
both hands, its back curved into a ball of soft fur, and 
its head hidden deep between its legs. The singularly- 
large and intense eyes of the loris have attracted the at- 
tention of the Singhalese, who capture the creature for 
the purpose of extracting them as charms and love- 
potions, and this they are said to effect by holding the 
little animal to the fire till its eyeballs burst. Its 
Tamil name is thavangu, or " thin-bodied ; " and hence 
a deformed child or an emaciated person has acquired 
in the Tamil districts the same epithet. The light- 
coloured variety of the loris in Ceylon has a spot on 
its forehead, somewhat resembling the narnam, or 
mark worn by the worshippers of Vishnu ; and, from 
this peculiarity, it is distinguished as the Nama-tha- 
vangu. 1 
II. Cheiroptera. Bats. — The multitude of bats is one 
of the features of the evening landscape ; they abound 
in every cave and subterranean passage, in the tunnels 
on the highways, in the galleries of the fortifications, 
in the roofs of the bungalows, and the ruins of every 
temple and building. At sunset they are seen issuing 
from their diurnal retreats to roam through the twilight 
in search of crepuscular insects, and as night approaches 
and the lights in the rooms attract the night-flying 
lepidoptera, the bats sweep round the dinner-table and 
1 There is an interesting notice pleton, in the Mag. Nat. Hist. 
of the Loris of Ceylon by Dr. Tem- 1844, ch. xiv. p. 362. 
