18G7.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4:4=1 
Fruit-eating Bats— Flying Foxes. 
In the last number of the American 
Agriculturist, we introduced to our 
readers a member of the very interest- 
ing order of animals — flying mammals — 
or bats. From what i\c then wrote it 
might well be supposed that all bats live 
upon insects chiefly, and altogether up- 
on animal food, but this is not the case, 
though all occurring in this country do. 
There are about forty species inhabiting 
the warmer parts of Asia and Africa, 
which live upon fruit, and do great 
damage to the orchards, especially to 
plantations of figs. These are generally 
bats of very large size, and to impress 
the fact that there are vegetarians even 
among bats, as well as to show the man- 
ner in which they close their skinny 
pinions when in repose, we present au 
engraving of the largest of the well- 
known bats, the Flying Fox of India, 
(Ptcropus rubricollis.) This animal meas- 
ures five feet from tip to tip of its ex- 
panded wings, and its head and body 
together are about one foot in length. 
Unlike the Vampire bat, which is not 
more than half as large, it is not dan- 
gerous to man or animals, except when 
attacked, when it defends itself as well 
as it can. The damage which flocks of 
these animals might do may easily be 
imagined when we consider the losses 
which we experience from birds. The 
Flying Foxes will work their way un- 
der or through, nets, and unless trees are 
enclosed in bamboo cages, they can 
hardly be excluded. Their attacks are 
made during the night also, which renders it 
still more difficult to guard against them. 
Their name is given them from their color, 
and from the foxlike shape of their heads. 
■ ■ wi ; -g- r > — t~mM . 
The American Sable.— (il'istilla Americana.) 
This beautiful animal, of which we give a 
careful and well executed engraving, is entirely 
different from the 
Sable of Siberia, 
the fur of which is 
so highly prized. 
Still, the American 
Sable approaches 
its namesake some- 
what in the beauiy 
of its coat, but is a 
much larger ani- 
mal. It is so close- 
ly related to the 
Pine Marten of Eu- 
rope as to have been 
regarded as identi- 
cal by several nat- 
uralists. The home 
of this animal is in 
the trees of densely 
wooded regions 
witere birds and 
squirrels abound, 
which constitute its 
chief food, and to 
which it is a very 
destructive enemy. 
It will pursue al- 
most any of the smaller animals, and easily 
overtake and kill them; the red squirrel and 
some of tbe weasel tribe alone being agile 
fltxng fox — (Pteropus rubricollis ) 
enough to escape. It climbs the highest trees 
like a squirrel, attacks owls, crows, and other 
birds in their nests, and sucks the eggs, or 
devours the young. The Sable is about 20 
inches long, exclusive of the tail, which is about 
10 inches. The fur is tawny to dark brown, 
in some cases approaching black — the darker 
and brighter, the more valuable. Both the size 
and color vary greatly. The head is light col- 
bushy and club-shaped. The geograph- 
ical range of the Sable is acios- the 
continent, between the 40lh and GSlh 
parallels of latitude, and throughout this 
region it is diligently hunted. Trap- 
pers establish what is called a " Sable 
line," often 60 or 70 miles in length. 
This is a series of traps, eight or ten to 
the mile, made by driving stakes into 
the ground to form three sides of a hol- 
low square; over the fourth side, one 
end of a log or trunk of a young tree is 
suspended, being held up by a round 
stick resting upon another which is bait- 
ed with a bird, squirrel, or piece of veni- 
son. The least disturbance of the bait 
causes the sticks to roll, and the log to 
fall. It often happens that wolverines, 
fishers, and occasionally foxes, tear 
open these traps, destroying bait and 
game for miles along the " line." The 
trapper passes continually back and 
forth, spending some part of his time in 
hunting other game, but visiting all his 
sable traps as often as once in two 
weeks. The fur is best between the last 
of October and the first of April. The 
female, as her time approaches, takes 
possession of an abandoned bird's nest 
in a hollow tree, or ousts the occupants, 
and in this she brings forth six or eighv 
j-oung. Were it not for the persistence 
with which these animals are hunted, 
they would be much more numerous; 
as it is they hardly hold their own from 
year to year in those parts where they 
are abundant enough to pay for hunting 
them, for they exhibit very little cun. 
ning in avoiding traps, and it is hardly 
probable that the natural timidity of the animal 
will ever be so far overcome as to render it 
obnoxious to agriculture in destroying birds. 
Tim Bunker on Base Ball Clubs. 
American sable — (Jfiislilla Americana.) 
ored, and the throat and sides of the neck are 
white. The head is long and pointed; the some- 
whf.'. pointed r^i-s, broad and *i> ■'■(, Ti.c inil ig 
"Don't you think they are running on't into- 
the ground ?" asked Seth Twiggs, as he stopped 
at my garden fence, when I was gathering 
squashes this mor- 
ning. " I du declare 
there'll be a slim 
chance to get any- 
body to work, if 
things keeps on in 
this way. "We shall 
be as bad off as they 
are among the In- 
dians, where the 
women do all the 
drudgery, and the 
men play all the 
time they ain't fight- 
in'. I hired Kiah 
Frink and another 
White Oaker to 
come down and 
help me husk, aud 
they had to leave 
right away arter 
dinner to go to a 
base ball match. 
Tbey said they 
wouldn't stop for 
double wages, for 
they could make 
more money on the ball ground betting. They 
knew which side was gwine to win. Pretty 
State of things !" Sell} thought th.e case was so 
