Published Monthly at the New York Aquarium, cor. 35th Street and Broadway. 
VOL. i. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24, 1877. NO 7. 
FLYING FOXES. 
BY DE. H. DOBNEE. 
The New York Aquarium does not intend to 
confine itself solely to the exposition of aquatic 
animals, but will, like the famous Berlin Aqua¬ 
rium, occasionally exhibit other interesting 
creatures that can be kept in large and suita¬ 
ble cages. The facilities for getting such ani¬ 
mals surpass those of any similar institution, 
as Messrs. Chas. Beiche & Beo. are the great¬ 
est dealers in animals of the world, their expe¬ 
ditions going regularly to different countries in 
Africa, Asia and Australia, 
collecting and transporting 
what can be got there through 
hunting parties or otherwise. 
Some weeks ago they received 
a remarkable collection of 
Flying Foxes {Pieropus edu- 
lis) from India, never before 
brought to America, which 
are now exposed to view in 
the Aquarium There being 
many interesting points in 
the natural history of these 
animals we propose to devote 
a few lines to them. 
The bats are generally re¬ 
garded as models of ugliness, 
alarming weak-minded per¬ 
sons when seen to hover in 
the dusk over their heads, 
an.^ xeiting undefined ideas 
and fears as to their forms 
an i intentions. Forthisrea- 
son it is interesting to take a 
close look in safety at the 
largest kind of these remark¬ 
able animals. All of them 
are to be found in a hanging 
position; the hind legs, end¬ 
ing in strong, hooked claws, 
pling to slender sticks fas¬ 
tened near the top of their cage, and the rest 
of their body is more or less enclosed in the 
wide, folded wing that forms the great pecu¬ 
liarity of these animals. This wing is really 
odd, both in form and character. The whole 
animal kingdom does not possess its equal. 
There are long, thin, articulated bones which 
pass through the whole of/ it like the threads 
in fantastic spider webs. 
Whoever for the first time sees it will hard¬ 
ly believe that this wing, when closely exam¬ 
ined, shows the same arrangement of its os¬ 
seous parts as our arm, or as the fore foot of 
any other mammal. But look at it when ex¬ 
panded and you will be surprised to find a 
small upper arm, a somewhat longer fore arm, 
and attached to the latter a hand with five 
fingers, the length of which is simply enor¬ 
mous. You might suppose that at least the 
number of phalanges, i. e., the small bones 
forming the parts of the fingers, might be 
, JMge? Y Lsffi yJYR as 
that on the contrary none but the fore finger 
has three phalanges, while all the others have 
only two of them. But do not mistake the 
bones of the middle hand, the so-called meta¬ 
carpal bones situated between the wrist and 
the fingers, for phalanges, for they resemble 
the latter very much, being 
almost as thin and certainly 
much longer than these. 
The hind legs are not as 
fully enclosed in the wing as 
the fore legs; the feet are 
totally free, thus enabling 
the bat to use the five strong 
hooked claws of each as a 
means to fasten its body to 
the branches of trees. When 
a ou see it hanging you may 
observe another interesting 
fact, by comparing the whole 
position of the animal with 
that of any other vertebrate 
animal under the same con¬ 
ditions. Take a bird, for in¬ 
stance, or imagine a calf or 
pig hanging in such a way 
that its toes seize a horizon¬ 
tal pole, and you will find 
that every animal under such 
circumstances presents the 
front side where the Flying 
Fox shows its back. It fol¬ 
lows that the legs of the bat 
mubt be bent in some pecul¬ 
iar way, or the manner in 
which they are fixed to the 
body must be different from 
