Chap. I.] 



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 thavangw, 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 namarn, 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. 



