THE FRUGIVOROUS BATS. 
267 
appendages, tlie tail short or altogether deficient, the interfernoral membrane, or the membrane between 
the legs, which in our ordinary Bats encloses the tail, reduced to very small dimensions, and the 
molar teeth furnished with flattish crowns, along the middle of which runs a longitudinal furrow 
(figured below). The free thumb is long, and armed with a strong hooked claw, and the first, or index 
finger, in nearly all the species, is also terminated by a claw. 
The species of Frugivorous Bats, of which about seventy have been described, agree very closely 
in their general characters, and constitute a single family, to which the name of Pteropidce has been 
given, derived from that of the oldest and most extensive of its genera, Pteropus (wing-foot). They 
are distributed all over the warmer parts of the Eastern hemisphere and the islands of the Pacific. 
Wherever they occur, they present nearly the same form, and generally a very similar style of colora- 
tion, whilst in their diet they stick most religiously to fruits, for although some have been found in 
captivity to feed on the flesh of birds and rats, and others are charged with catching and eating fish, 
in the former case some allowance must be made for the artificial condition of the animal, which 
probably produced a morbid appetite, heightened by the fact that the supply of his natural food had 
been exhausted ; and the second statement seems to rest exclusively on the observed fact of these Bats 
on leaving their roosts at sunset skimming close over 
the surface of water, and sometimes even dipping 
into it ; but the object of these evolutions, as remarked 
by Mr. Dobson, u is probably, in the first instance, to 
drink, and, secondly, to rid themselves of some of the 
numerous parasites with which they are commonly in- 
fested.” Sir James Emerson Tennent, however, says of 
the Ceylonese species, that “ insects, caterpillars, birds’ 
eggs, and young birds are devoured by them ; and the 
Singhalese say that the Flying Fox will even attack a 
Tree Snake,” but these statements are not confirmed by 
other writers, and from the reference to the Singhalese, 
it seems probable that they are founded upon hearsay 
evidence. Mr. Dobson, however, has suggested that one 
species (the Cynonycteris amplexkaiidata) feeds occa- 
sionally upon the shell-fish that it finds upon the shore, 
and in this opinion he is supported by Mr. W. T. 
Blanford, who found the species upon the island of 
Kislun, in the Persian Gulf, a spot so barren that he thinks the Bats would starve if they depended 
upon fruits for their nourishment. 
The habits of the Flying Fox of Ceylon ( Pteropus medius ) are so well described by Sir J ames Emer- 
son Tennent, that wo may here quote Ids observations upon that species, especially as they will apply, 
mutatis mutandis , to the members of the family in general. He says : — “They feed, amongst other 
things, on the guava, the plantain, the rose-apple, and the fruit of the various fig-trees. Flying Foxes 
are abundant in all the maritime districts, especially at the season when the pul/wm-imbul (Eriodendron 
orientate, Stead.), one of the silk-cotton trees, is putting forth its flower-buds, of which they are 
singularly fond. By day they suspend themselves from the highest branches, hanging by the claws of 
the hind-legs, with the head turned upwards, and pressing the chin against the breast. At sunset 
taking wing, they hover, with a murmuring sound occasioned by the beating of their broad membra- 
nous wings, around the fruit-trees, on which they feed till morning, when they resume their pensile 
attitude as before. [See Plate 9.] 
“ A favourite resort of these Bats is the lofty india-rubber trees, which on one side overhang 
the Botanic Gardens 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 con- 
sumed. Here they hang in such prodigious numbers, that frequently large branches give way beneath 
their accumulated weight. Every forenoon, between the hours of 9 and 1 1 , they take to wing, 
apparently for exercise, and possibly to sun their wings and fur, and dry them after the dews of the 
early morning. On these occasions their numbers are quite surprising, flying in clouds as thick as 
DENTITION OF THE EGYPTIAN FltUIT-BAT. 
(Three limes natural size.) 
