COLLARED FRUIT BAT WITH YOUNG. (From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.)
This species is referred to by nearly all writers on Indian zoology; but their accounts of its general habits agree closely with those given by Sir James Tennent, and already quoted. The Bats feed on fruits of various kinds, except oranges, according to Mr. Jerdon, and besides figs they are especially fond of the anonads, particularly the fruit of Gualteria longifolia, the soft parts of which they devour, rejecting the kernels, with which the ground under the trees is speedily covered. According to Mr. F. Day, the fruit of the wild almond (Terminalia catappa) is also a favourite article of diet with them, and he adds, “they sometimes carry off the almonds into the verandahs of houses, where they extract the kernels, and in so doing frighten nervous people into the belief that robbers are endeavouring to effect an entrance.” In search of these and other favourite fruits, they often fly to great distances during the night, returning with the dawn to their sleeping-places, when a scene of confusion takes place, which has been described as follows by Mr. Tickell:—“From the arrival of the first comer, until the sun is high above the horizon, a scene of incessant wrangling and contention is enacted among them, as each endeavours to secure a higher and better place, or to eject a neighbour from too close vicinage. In these struggles the Bats hook themselves along the branches, scrambling about hand over hand with some speed, biting each other severely, striking out with the long claw of the thumb, shrieking and cackling without intermission. Each new arrival is compelled to fly several times round the tree, being threatened from all points; and when he eventually hooks on he has to go through a series of combats, and be probably ejected two or three times, before he makes good his tenure.” No doubt these squabbles are rendered more violent by the disgracefully dissipated habits in which the Bats indulge during their nocturnal expeditions, for, according to Mr. Francis Day and other observers, “they often pass the night drinking the toddy from the chatties in the cocoa-nut trees, which results either in their returning home in the early morning in a state of extreme and riotous intoxication, or in being found the next day at the foot of the trees sleeping off the effects of their midnight debauch.”
The flesh is said by Colonel Sykes to be delicate, and without disagreeable flavour; but he states that the only persons in Western India who eat these Bats are the Portuguese residents. According to Mr. Jerdon, however, many classes in the Madras presidency also eat them.
THE GREAT KALONG.[148]
This, which is the largest of all known Bats, is an inhabitant of the great islands of the Eastern Archipelago, especially Java and Sumatra, where it exists in immense numbers. The species is also said to occur in the Philippine Islands and in Malacca. It is nearly allied to the Indian Fruit Bat, but grows to a larger size, attaining a length of about fourteen inches, and an expanse of wing of four feet and upwards. The colour varies considerably, but is generally brownish-black on the back, with the top of the head and the neck reddish-yellow, and tinged with chestnut-brown beneath. The muzzle, ears, and wing-membranes are black; the ears are shorter than in the Indian species, and the outer margin is less concave towards the tip; and the wing-membranes originate on the sides of the body at a greater distance from the centre of the back. Some of the varieties have been described as distinct species; two especially, in which the fur is entirely black, figure in the catalogues under the names of Pteropus Pluto and P. funereus.
The Kalong (see [next page]) was the first of the Indian Frugivorous Bats to be made known to European naturalists in modern times. It was described under the name of Vespertilio admirabilis, by Bontius, in his “Historia Naturalis Indiæ Orientalis.” The species was also described and figured by Seba and other naturalists of the seventeenth century; but Linnæus, by a curious blunder, confused the references to this and allied species with the stories told of the American Vampire Bats, and described these Eastern fruit-eating forms as constituting a species under the name of Vespertilio vampyrus, the natural history of which he summed up in the following queer paragraph:—“Noctu haurit sanguinem dormientium servorum, cristas gallorum et lacrymas palmarum, phlebotomus felicissimus in pleuritide!” (By night it sucks the blood of sleeping slaves, the combs of cocks, and the juice of palm-trees, a capital lancet in pleurisy!) In its habits it closely resembles its Indian ally, resorting in great numbers to particular trees for the purpose of sleeping through the day, and starting forth at sundown in search of the fruits on which it feeds. Dr. Horsfield describes them as presenting a singular spectacle in their dormitories. “Ranged in succession with the head downwards,” he says, “the membrane contracted about the body, and often in close contact, they have little resemblance to living beings, and by a person not accustomed to their economy are readily mistaken for a part of the tree, or for a fruit of uncommon size suspended from its branches.” He adds that they occasion “incalculable mischief, attacking and devouring indiscriminately every kind of fruit, from the abundant and useful cocoa-nut which surrounds every dwelling of the meanest peasantry, to the rare and most delicate productions which are cultivated with care by princes and chiefs of distinction.” In his history of Sumatra, Mr. Marsden states that he has observed very large flights of these Bats passing at a great height in the air, as if migrating from one country to another; and he adds that Captain Forrest noticed them crossing the Straits of Sunda from Java Head to Mount Pugong. The flesh of this species is eaten by the inhabitants of the countries where it abounds, who thus get some return for the mischief it does in their gardens and plantations. Its specific name (edulis) refers to this circumstance. Its name among the natives of Java is Kalong, and with the Malays of Sumatra and of the peninsula of Malacca Kaluwang, or Kluang.
KALONG.