FLYING POX. 53 
tion is most extraordinary. He found one of their places of assembly 
ona small island in Moreton Bay, and another in the scrub about 40 
miles inland from the bay, The space occupied by one of these flights 
was from 400 to 500 yards square, and every tree in this part was 
more or less loaded with them.” After peacefully sleeping all day 
in some dense, shady brush, the flying fox emerges in the cool of the 
evening for its meals on the best fruits the grower has cultivated, 
and it consumes his fruits as if by right, also tasting and thus 
destroying a dozen or two of unripe ones, and at the same time 
nocking several to the ground. Its destruction is prospective as 
well, for it damages the young wood which is to bear next year’s 
crop. Not only the producers but the consumers of fruit also 
suffer, for the toll, ruthlessly exacted by these midnight robbers on 
the best samples, diminishes both the quality and the quantity of 
that sent to market, and thus enhances the selling price. One 
Season, in the Maclean district, this pest made great havoc among 
the early fruit ; in some instances the foxes skinned lemons, which 
is a new departure hitherto unknown in the locality. W. G. Caporn, 
Rockhampton, stated at the fruitgrowers’ union, Parramatta, 
that for the last two years he had found the following means 
most effective in scaring away flying foxes :—‘‘ Between the trees 
a pole is fixed three feet high, from the top of it are drawn 
four galvanized wires, which hang over the trees, and well up 
on each wire are one or two necks of glass bottles, these cast 
a reflection and frighten the foxes.” The agricultural associa- 
tion, Gosford, organised parties for the destruction of this pest. 
For one expedition 4,000 cartridges, besides poxrden and shot, 
Were conveyed in a waggon some six or seven miles to the haunt of 
the flying foxes—a valley in a thick scrub nearacreek. On the 
arrival of the sportsmen at the rendezvous of the vampires, some 47 
puns opened fire on all sides of the brush, in the tops of which the 
oxes were congregated in thousands, and very many fell in the first 
quarter of an hour after the camp had been surprised. ‘Two, three, 
and sometimes four came to the ground from one shot. Assailed 
from every direction they were kept continually moving, but they 
never left the immediate vicinity of their haunt. At times they 
Sought safety in circling like swarming bees out of gunshot, but 
before long they returned to the treetops, and were once more 
assailed. A camp was discovered near Maclean which was said to 
contain fully 100,000 ; the haunt was about one mile long and half a 
mile wide ; 4,000 were shot in one day. 
food.—The wild fruits and berries peculiar to the brushes, the 
Small wild fig when ripe being a favourite article. Since the 
Occupation of the country and the introduction of fruit trees from 
urope, the flying fox has manifested a marked preference for the 
delicious fruits produced for the table of the white man. It also 
Visits ornamental trees, such as the oak and Moreton Bay fig-tree in 
Search of their products. Were it not for these enemies fruit- 
growing in Queensland would be more profitable; for it is a fruit- 
eating bat, very fond of peaches, visiting even a solitary tree 

