294 
MOUNT EDGECUMBE. 
discovered. Some labourers, felling a decayed Thatch- 
Palm {Thrinax)i found the hollow trunk to be 
tenanted by Bats, in such aggregated numbers, that 
my informant, who brought me the specimen, de- 
clared that he could have filled a large basket with 
them. He took five, but all escaped, except the 
present individual, which he brought to me. Many 
of them, he said, were larger than this, but he de- 
scribed them all as being “ like ” it. This was about 
the end of January. 
A month afterwards, I had proof that these state- 
ments were worthy of more credit than I had at 
first assigned to them. On knocking down another 
Thatch-palm, there was found in the hollow of the 
trunk another immense assemblage of Bats. A large 
cuttacoo, or negroes basket, was presented to me, 
which, on being uncovered, displayed a pretty scene 
of dusky life. The “ pie ” of our infant days, that 
contained “four and twenty blackbirds” all ready 
to sing, was nothing to it. Pifty bats, all alive and 
kicking, were huddled into the narrow space ; an 
arrangement which, considering their natural pro- 
pensities, was probably not very disagreeable to 
them. I examined forty- three, a few escaping from 
the crowd ; and if I was surprised before at the ex- 
tent of their gregarious habits, I was still more as- 
tonished to find that of this number, every one was 
of the male sex, as had been the one formerly ex- 
amined. The habit so strongly reminded me of a 
herd of monks, shutting themselves up in a convent, 
that I thought the species might well be designated 
as the Monk Bat. 
