NOTES. 
51 
meant that the crows were waking up and that the bats had 
already commenced to arrive. I hastened down to the jetty and 
watched the reverse passage, the bats returning from the main¬ 
land to rest for the day and the crows crossing over on their daily 
quest for garbage. 
During the day the bats may be seen suspended in rows from 
the midribs of the palm leaves, resembling hanging fruits when 
observed from a distance. If a gentle land breeze is blowing out 
to sea it carries along with it a penetrating odour of bats. 
The homing of the Indian or gray crow at sunset is well kno wn 
to residents of Colombo and other parts of the Maritime districts 
of Ceylon.* In Amboina, Semon observed somewhat similar 
habits in the case of fruit-eating pigeons of the genus 
Carpophaga. These pigeons used to swarm about the forests 
during the daytime following their individual pursuits, assem¬ 
bling at sunset on certain trees singled out for their nightly 
repose. Professor Semon had never observed this habit in any 
other bird except in the case of herons. (R. Semon, “ In the 
Australian Bush,” 1899, p. 505.) 
Similarly flying-fox camps are well known in tropical 
countries. One at Peradeniya is mentioned by Sir William 
Gregory in his Autobiography (1894, p. 348), and may still be 
inspected there in the Botanic Gardens. Another was described 
by Semon in Queensland, inland from Cooktown, situated in a 
dense scrub of forest trees, where the fruit bats hung in 
thousands taking their day’s rest. (Semon, op. cit ., p. 261.) 
I do not know of any published description of reciprocal 
relations having become established between communities of 
birds and of fruit bats such as occurs at Barberyn,| the same 
trees affording hospitality in regular alternation to day-flying 
birds and night-flying mammals. I think it is a noteworthy 
example of synchronised homing instincts of gregarious creatures. 
A. WILLEY. 
2. Leaf-mimicry It is one of the most familiar facts of 
biology that many animals, chiefly insects, bear a decided 
resemblance to the plants upon or amongst which they live, thus 
acquiring an apparent advantage for themselves either in the 
way of rendering themselves invisible to their foes or attractive 
to their prey. There are flower-mimics, twig-mimics, and leaf- 
mimics. The floral simulators are perhaps the least common, and 
* Of. Spolia Zeylanica, vol. I., part II., p. 27. 
f I am told that the same phenomenon recurs on islands in the Bentota river. 
