270 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
they devour, rejecting the kernels, with which the ground under the trees is speedily covered. 
According to Mr. F. Day, the fruit of the wild almond ( Termincdia catappa) is also a favourite article 
of diet with them, and he adds, “ they sometimes carry off the almonds into the verandahs of houses, 
where they extract the kernels, and in so doing frighten nervous people into the belief that robbers 
are endeavouring to effect an entrance.” In search of these and other favourite fruits, they often fly 
to great distances during the night, returning with the dawn to their sleeeping-places, when a 
scene of confusion takes place, which has been described as follows by Mr. Tickell : — “ From the arrival 
COLLARED FRUIT BAT WITH YOUNG. (From tlie Proceedings of the Zoological Society.) 
of the first comer, until the sun is high above the horizon, a scene of incessant wrangling and 
contention is enacted among them, as each endeavours to secure a higher and better place, or to eject a 
neighbour from too close vicinage. In these struggles the Bats hook themselves along the branches, 
scrambling about hand over hand with some speed, biting each other severely, striking out with the 
long claw of the thumb, shrieking and cackling without intermission. Each new arrival is compelled 
to 11 y several times round the tree, being threatened from all points ; and when he eventually hooks on 
he has to go through a series of combats, and be probably ejected two or three times, before he makes 
good his tenure.” No doubt these squabbles are rendered more violent by the disgracefully dissipated 
habits in which the Bats indulge dining their nocturnal expeditions, for, according to Mr. Francis Day 
and other observers, a they often pass the night drinking the toddy from the chatties in the cocoa-nut 
trees, which results either in their returning home in the early morning in a state of extreme and 
riotous intoxication, or in being found the next day at the foot of the trees sleeping off the effects 
of their midnight debauch.” 
