These tailed Fruit Bats are represented in the East Indian region by several species, which gives the genus Cynonycteris a geographical range from the Philippine Islands in the north-east to the Cape of Good Hope in the south-west. The best-known Indian species (Cynonycteris amplexicaudata), is nearly allied to the Egyptian form, but smaller, being little more than four inches in length. Its fur is reddish-brown, or brownish-red above, and so short upon the back that this part appears nearly bare. The range of this Bat extends from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the Philippine Islands, and it appears always to haunt the coasts. As already stated this Bat is supposed by some zoologists to feed on mollusca and other marine animals picked up on the seashore.
ROUSSETTE.
THE MARGINED FRUIT BAT.[156]
HEAD OF THE MARGINED FRUIT BAT.
In the Cynopteri, which are small Fruit Bats inhabiting Southern Asia and its islands, the characters are very similar to those of the preceding genera, but the muzzle is considerably shorter and more Dog-like, and one of the true molars is deficient, so that the whole series of molar teeth contains four on each side in the upper, and five on each side in the lower jaw. The most abundant species is the Cynopterus marginatus (see [next page]), which is about four inches in length, and varies in colour through different shades of brown and reddish-brown. It is specially distinguished by having the ears surrounded by a white border. This Bat occurs in all parts of India, in Ceylon, in Further India, and in the eastern islands to Celebes and the Philippines. It is exceedingly common, and very destructive to fruits, especially guavas, plantains, and mangoes. Mr. Dobson gives the following account of the voracity of a specimen obtained by him at Calcutta:—He gave it “a ripe banana, which, with the skin removed, weighed exactly two ounces. The animal immediately, as if famished with hunger, fell upon the fruit, seized it between the thumbs and the index fingers, and took large mouthfuls out of it, opening the mouth to the fullest extent with extreme voracity. In the space of three hours the whole fruit was consumed. Next morning the Bat was killed, and found to weigh one ounce, half the weight of the food eaten in three hours! Indeed, the animal when eating seemed to be a kind of living mill, the food passing from it almost as fast as devoured, eating being performed alone for the sake of the pleasure of eating.” It is hardly fair, perhaps, to apply the character of this disgusting little gormandiser to his whole species, but no doubt if the rest of his kind only approximate to his prowess, they must do incalculable mischief in the plantations of fruit-trees. According to Captain Hutton, these Bats travel long distances, as much as thirty or forty miles in search of food, and back again the same night. This is most strikingly shown in their frequenting the valleys of the Dehra Doon and Nepaul to feed on the guavas growing there, as they are never seen in these localities during the day, but arrive there during the fruit season about midnight, and depart again before morning. “To reach Dehra,” says Captain Hutton, “they must either cross the Sivalik range of hills, from 3,000 to 3,500 feet high, or thread their way for miles through the passes leading into the Doon, though even then we may ask with amazement how, when they are approaching the Sivaliks, they can tell that there is fruit some twenty miles in advance of them! To reach the valley of Nepaul at 6,000 feet of elevation they must ascend and descend the mountains; and yet, wonderful to say, they penetrate no farther into the hills, neither do they descend from the Doon to Mussooree, apparently instinctively knowing that they will find no guavas farther in the hills! Almost equally astonishing is it that, having thus feasted in the Doon and Nepaul, they should be able to find their way back again, through forests and hills, for thirty or forty miles to their natural haunts in the plains.” Captain Hutton fully confirms Mr. Dobson’s statements as to the greediness of this Bat. He says that one he had “in Calcutta in 1849 appeared to be almost incessantly eating, resting only, even during the day, for a short interval of sleep, and then recommencing upon ripe guavas, as if it had not seen food for a fortnight.”
WHITE’S FRUIT BAT.[157]
A series of peculiar species are inhabitants of the continent of Africa, from the Northern tropic to the Cape of Good Hope. They have the muzzle rather elongated, the molar teeth three on each side in the upper, and five on each side in the lower jaw, the base of the thumb united to the index finger by membrane, and the tail very short and chiefly enclosed in the small interfemoral membrane. The males have tufts of divergent white hairs on the shoulders, whence the generic name of Epomophorus, applied to these Bats, has been derived. The best-known species is the Epomophorus Whitii, an inhabitant of Western Africa (Senegambia and Guinea), which measures about six and a half inches in length, and has an expanse of wing of about eighteen inches. Its fur is reddish-brown above, and greyish beneath, and both sexes present white spots at the base of the ears.