FLYING FOXES.
Among the many anomalies presented by Nature, that of a flying mammal has seemed strikingly incongruous, and has always left an impression on the popular mind generally the reverse of the truth. The fox-bats are an example in point. Superstition has gathered about these strange creatures the wildest fears; and their uncouth and weird looks have strengthened a foolish credence in the stories of the vampire. They, it was declared, settled at night upon the wearied sleeper, and sucked his life-blood, or with a malicious bite involved the souls of the virtuous in the terrors of their own lost estate.
The examinations of the naturalist long ago put to flight these romantic tales; but in their haunts, among the woods of Southern Asia, in Africa, Australia, Java, and Sumatra, their black swarms and flying movements yet cause dread and disgust.
The flying foxes are ranged under the order of the Cheiroptera, or hand-winged mammals, and are grouped together in the sub-section of the fruit-eating bats, as distinguished from those feeding mostly upon insects.
Their depredations upon orchards and vineyards are notorious. Sailing through the air at sundown, and guided by an acute sense of smell, they will enter the plantations containing some plant upon which the fruit has reached maturity, and, covering it in crowds, will revel in the delicious repast, leaving the tree or vine at dawn stripped of all its precious wealth. They fly rapidly, but never at any great height, and sometimes will traverse considerable spaces, migrating from island to island over intervening arms of the ocean. On the ground they are agile and curiously active. They climb trees with ease, and during the day hang by their hind limbs, their wing membrane wrapped around them, from the loftier boughs. So densely are they sometimes congregated that the tree seems a solid mass of black, motionless bags.
The species is distributed over East India, and finds also a favourable habitation in Madagascar. It lives in immense colonies, and its swarms have been compared with those of gnats, while the branches they infest sometimes break down with their great weight. They feed on dates, bananas, the guava fruit, and also eat insects, the young and eggs of birds, and apparently at times snakes. Their flesh is edible, and esteemed immensely by natives, who catch them in nets in the trees, and kill them on the ground.
In flight, they can be brought down by a blow delivered on the expanded arms, covered with the flying membrane (patagium), as these are very weak.
This species is seen more often in captivity than any other; and Brehm, from whose admirable Thierleben these notes are taken, speaks with characteristic enthusiasm of his observations made upon one. The "fox" slept nearly all day, though regularly he devoted some time to the cleansing and preparation of his "flying machine," and occasionally bestirred himself for the enjoyment of a cherry or a sip of milk. At the approach of night he became restless and excited, stretched his wings, and vainly attempted to escape. He displayed temper, and would bite sharply any one whose familiarities he resented. The combats of these animals with one another are very relentless, and generally terminate with the death of one or both contestants.
The head in these bats is long and pointed, the ears moderately large, the nose without the appendages seen in the insectivorous bats, and the jaws armed with incisors, canines, and molar teeth. They form in their habitat interesting spectacles; and their whirring progress through the air at night, or the pendent throngs they present by day, alike astonish the visitor to Ceylon and India. The bats are naturally regarded as one of the most distinctly marked groups of animals; and among them the flying-foxes (Pteropidæ) are easily identified. They have long been known in literature, and the ancient Herodotus spoke of them in Arabia, and said that the inhabitants protected themselves against them in dresses of leather. Later classic authors referred to them, and many naturalists have in the East carefully observed their habits.
FLYING FOXES.