65 
Blanding’s Tortoise (Emys meleagris), Western United 
States. 
The Box Tortoise (^Cistudo clausa), Eastern and South- 
ern States. 
The Gopher Tortoise (^Testudo carolincC), Southern 
States. 
The Great or Elephant-footed Tortoise {Tesiudo 
elephantopus), of the Galapagos Islands, is represented by a 
pair which, with the other Tortoises, are in a compartment 
of the Rabbit Warren. 
The Indian Fruit Bats {Pteropus medius), known also 
by the name of Rousette Bat and Flying Fox, are temporarily 
kept in this building, although they belong to the mamma- 
lian order Cheiropte^'a. They exist in large numbers in India 
and the neighboring islands, where they grow to a very large 
size, the expanded wings sometimes measuring four or five 
feet from tip to tip. Sir Emerson Tennent gives the follow- 
ing account of some of their habits — 
“A favorite resort of these bats is to the lofty India-rubber 
trees, which on one side overhang the Botanic Garden of 
Paradenia, in the vicinity of Kandy. Thither for some years 
past they have congregated, chiefly in the autumn, taking 
their departure when the figs of the ficus elastica are consumed. 
Here they hang in such prodigious numbers that frequently 
large branches give way beneath their accumulated weight. 
“ Every forenoon, generally between the hours of 9 and ii 
A. M., they take to wing, apparently for exercise, and possi- 
bly to sun their wings and fur and dry them after the dews 
of early morning. On these occasions their numbers are 
quite surprising, flying as thick as bees or midges. 
“After these recreations they hurry back to their favorite 
trees, chattering and screaming like monkeys, and always 
wrangling and contending angrily for the most shady and 
comfortable places in which to hang for the rest of the day 
protected from the sun. 
“ The branches they resort to soon become almost divested 
of leaves, these being stripped oif by the action of the bats 
attaching and detaching themselves by means of their hooked 
feet. At sunset they fly off to their feeding-grounds, 
