Limited as is our space, we cannot pass over the Sucker-footed Bats. These are met with, strangely enough, in countries so far apart as Brazil and Madagascar. The suckers from which they derive their name, in the Brazilian species, are small circular, hollow disks, attached to the thumb and the sole of the foot, recalling the suckers of the cuttle-fish and brown water-beetle. By their means the animal is enabled to climb over smooth vertical surfaces.
A white bat is a rarity in the bat world. We cannot therefore afford to pass without mention the fact that Central and South America possess two species of White Bats. This colour is probably developed for protection's sake, the bats being found nestling between the silvery leaves of a cocoanut-palm. Brilliant coloration, on the other hand, is by no means so rare. Welwitsch's Bat, for instance—a West African species—is remarkable for its gorgeous coloration, the colours being orange and black. An Indian species, known as the Painted Bat, is said to be so brilliantly coloured as to resemble a gorgeous butterfly rather than a bat.
Photo W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Croydon.
COBEGO.
Back view of the cobego, with the limbs extended, showing the great size of the flying-membranes, or parachute.
Ugliness is more common than beauty amongst the bats, and perhaps the ugliest of all the tribe is the Naked Bat of the Malayan region. It is absolutely repulsive. The skin is naked, save for a collar of hair round the neck; whilst on the throat it gives rise to an enormous throat-pouch, which discharges an oily fluid of a peculiarly nauseating smell. On either side of the body is a deep pouch, in which the young are carried—a very necessary provision, for they would be quite unable to cling to the body of the parent, as do the young of fur-bearing bats, on account of the naked skin.
Of the great group of the Vampire-bats we can only make mention of the blood-sucking species. These are natives of South America. It is to Dr. Darwin that we owe our first absolutely reliable information about these little animals. Before the account in his Journal, it was uncertain to which of the vampires belonged the unenviable distinction of being the blood-sucker. During the stay of the great naturalist in Chili one was actually caught by one of his servants, as evening was drawing on, biting the withers of a horse. In the morning the spot where the bite had been inflicted was plainly visible, from its swollen condition. These two species, it has been stated, "are the only bats which subsist entirely on a diet of blood, yet it is possible that ... some of the Javelin-bats or their allies may on occasion vary their ordinary food with it."
The Insectivora, or Flightless Insect-eaters.
Some members of this group have departed from the traditional insect diet. Thus the cobego feeds upon leaves, a curious aquatic shrew—the Potamogale of West Africa—upon fish, and the moles upon worms.