20 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. ft 



bee *, and of a glossy black colour, is sometimes to be 

 seen about Colombo. It is so familiar and gentle that 

 it will alight on the cloth during dinner, and manifests 

 so little alarm that it seldom makes any effort to escape 

 before a wine glass can be inverted to secure it. 



Although not strictly in order, this seems not an in- 

 appropriate place to notice one of the most curious pe- 

 culiarities connected with the bats — their singular 

 parasite, the Nycteribia. 2 On cursory observation this 

 creature appears to have neither head, antennae, eyes, nor 

 mouth ; and the earlier observers of its structure satisfied 

 themselves that the place of the latter was supplied 

 by a cylindrical sucker, which, being placed between 

 the shoulders, the insect had no option but to turn on 

 its back to feed. Another anomaly was thought to com- 

 pensate for this apparent inconvenience ; — its three 

 pairs of legs, armed with claws, are so arranged that 

 they seem to be equally distributed over its upper and 

 under sides, the creature being thus enabled to use 

 them like hands, and to grasp the strong hairs above it 

 while extracting its nourishment. 



It moves, in fact, by rolling itself rapidly along, ro- 

 tating like a wheel on the extremities of its spokes, or 

 like the clown in a pantomime, hurling himself forward 

 on hands and feet alternately. Its celerity is so great 

 that Colonel Montague, who was one of the first to 

 describe it minutely 3 , says its speed exceeds that of any 



1 It is a very small Singhalese of the same family. Dr. Temple- 

 variety of Scotophilus Coromande- ton observed them in Ceylon in 

 licus, F. Cuv. great abundance on the fur of the 



2 This extraordinary creature Scotophilus Coromandelicus, and 

 had formerly been discovered only they will, no doubt, be found on 

 on a few European bats. Joinville many others. 



figured one which he found on the 3 Celeripes vespertilionis, Mont 



large roussette (the flying-fox), and Lin. Trans, xi. p. 11. 

 says he had seen another on a bat 



