BATS WITH BULLDOG FACES
The heads of bats are strangely sculptured, some being smoothly contoured and shaped like those of little foxes; others appear like miniature bulldogs; and still others have curious cartilaginous nose-leaves upright on the muzzle. Some have the entire face molded into a hideous mask repulsive to look upon.
Their habits are equally varied to meet special conditions: Some are eaters of fruit alone; others feed solely upon insects, while others bite other mammals, including man, for the purpose of drinking the oozing blood, upon which they subsist. All are nocturnal, but some appear late in the afternoon, before the sun sets; most species, however, wait until the shades of night have covered the earth.
Throughout the world the majority of the species of bats feed upon insects, but there are many fruit-eaters. The teeming insects and plant life of the tropics afford a never-failing food supply, and the center of abundance of these animals is found there. In some localities between twenty and thirty kinds of bats exist, with such vast numbers of individuals that the bat population far outnumbers all other kinds of mammals combined.