The Doctor raised his rifle and fired at one of the trees. The game fell to the ground, and Frank ran forward to pick it up.
"Why, it's a bat!" he exclaimed, as he held the prize by an extended wing, "and a large one too."
"Yes," answered the Doctor, "it belongs to the family of vampires; the naturalists call it a roussette, and its genus is pteropus. Its popular name is flying-fox, and the natives find it good eating, though Europeans will not generally touch it. Its fur, you perceive, is soft, and it is often used for the linings of gloves, but in a tropical climate like this it is not of a good quality."
HOW A BAT SLEEPS.
"But what are they doing here on this island?" Fred asked. "And look, the trees are covered with them, all hanging down by their claws and apparently asleep."
"Yes," said Mr. Segovia, "they are asleep, and you may shoot as many of them as you like. What you supposed to be black leaves were in reality bats, and they take the place of the foliage they have destroyed."
"But do they live here all the time?" inquired Frank. "If they do, I should think they would kill the trees by depriving them of the power of growing."
"No," was the reply, "they only stay here during the period of the eastern monsoon. They sleep all day, and go out at night in search of food, and with the rising of the sun, or before it, they are back again. When the eastern monsoon stops, and the western one begins, the bats leave these islands and go away to the east coast of Luzon, and then the trees have a chance to grow. With the return of the eastern monsoon we have the bats again, and then comes our sport in shooting them."