916 Marvels of the Universe 
at Zanzibar through my tenanting a room near which grew a fig-tree harbouring immense numbers 
of Fruit Bats), and, lastly, they are most destructive in the gardens and orchards of natives. 
Some Fruit Bats in Malaysia and West Africa develop tongues of great length covered with 
horny teeth. With these they rasp the rind of fruits so as to suck out their pulp. 
Except for the usual absence of a tail (though this organ is developed in one or two types), 
the Fruit-eating Bats are somewhat more generalized in their structure than the Insect-eating sub- 
order, and perhaps approximate a little 
more to the Lemurine type, which seems 
to have originated the Bats at a far-off 
period in the earth’s history when the 
primitive Lemurs and the Insectivores 
scarcely formed distinct orders. There 
is a good deal about the head of the 
Fruit Bats which suggests affinities 
with the Lemurs and also with that 
strange creature of the Malay Peninsula 
so difficult to classify, the Colugo, 
which does not precisely fly, but glides 
down, and even up, through the air on 
its greatly expanded, skinny membrane 
between the limbs. 
TEL De aly Ue Aine ReA 
BY R. LYDEKKER, F-R-S- 
THE claim of a comparatively insig- 
nificant-looking species of lizard-like 
reptile, now restricted to two or three 
small rocky islands off the coast of New 
Zealand, to a place among marvellous 
animals is based on the fact that it is 
the sole living representative of an 
otherwise long-extinct group. A casual 
observer, on being shown one of these 
Tuateras, as they are called by the 
Maori, would probably remark that it 
looked a very ordinary sort of lizard ; 
Photo by] [sir Ea GIOaEG: and, as a matter of fact, it presents a 
THE FRUIT BAT. considerable superficial resemblance to 
This is the largest member of the Bat tribe. The fur is russet-brown one of the larger Tropical American 
in colour, and the leathery wings are blackish-brown. The Fruit Bat emits 
Aorors mde cadll andl feel GYWiy on Lesa meeroco onlate iguanas, meastmimg, as Wt Gloss, som 
soft-skinned fruit. about eighteen inches to something 
over a couple of feet in length, and having a flexible crest of spines running along the back 
and tail. Its internal anatomy, as well as its teeth, differs, however, im toto from that of any true 
lizard ; and to such a degree that the creature has no right to be included under that name, 
although it may be so designated in popular language. 
For, despite its Iguana-like form, the Tuatera comes in many respects nearer to a crocodile or 
a tortoise than it does to a lizard; and it is a member of a very primitive and ancient group of | 
reptiles, of which some of the other representatives have left their fossilized remains in the New Red 
