Fruit bat

“ THE Agricultural Department at Washington is taking precautions to prevent the importation into the United States of any of the animal pests which are found in Porto Rico, the Philippines, and the other new colonies. Among these none is more feared than the great fruit bats which abound in the Philippines. A full grown specimen of the fruit bat measures five feet from tip to tip of its wings. The fruit bats live together in immense communities and feed almost altogether on tropical and subtropical fruits. ”

“ Jules suggested.
“Exactly. Those are its prey. The bat lives on insects exclusively. All are food for its maw: hard-winged beetles, slender mosquitoes, plump moths, flying insects of all sorts; in fact, all the little winged foes of our cereals, vines, fruit-trees, woolen stuffs [26] —all those creatures of the air that come in the evening, attracted by our lighted rooms, and singe their wings in the flames of our lamps. Who would undertake to say how many insects bats destroy when they fly around a house? The game is so small, and the hunter is so hungry. ”

“ This little anecdote seems to set the moral character of the Bat in a very favorable light, at any rate as regards the family affections, and there is no doubt that the females of all the species of the group show considerable fondness for their young. In other respects, perhaps, they do not all shine quite so brilliantly, for, as we have seen, the Fruit Bats squabble very selfishly for the most convenient sleeping places, as indeed do other gregarious species of the order, and some of the former quarrel and fight over their food. ”

“ The fruit-eating bats are much larger than the insect-eaters, and [Pg 320] they are destructive and troublesome, while the common bats are useful.
The four most famous bats are the common bat, which we have described; the long-eared bat, which has ears so enormous that they are as long as the creature’s entire body; the flying-fox, a bat of India, very lazy, and having a fox-like face. Flying-foxes are found in India, Africa, and the Oceanic Islands. In Java the fruit trees must be protected with bamboo nettings, to prevent the depredations of these creatures. ”

“ They will fly as many as thirty or forty miles and back the same night in search of food. It is a greedy animal, individuals kept in captivity seeming to be always eating. The fruit bats are found in Asia, Africa, and Australia. ”

“ 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.” This scene of selfish contention over, the Fruit Bats pass some hours in profound sleep, during which they remain suspended in rows along the branches, to which they cling by one foot only, the other with all the lower surface of the body being comfortably wrapped in the leathery mantle formed by the contracted wings. ”

“ Harvey. "Such tales were long believed, even by writers on natural history; and I have some where a picture of a monstrous bat sucking the blood from a man's veins. But all this is now known to be fabulous. No kind of bat will attack an animal as large as itself, nor enter a house when there is an abundance of fruit and insects in the field."
"Shall we let this bat go now?" said John. ”

“ In habits bats are social, nocturnal and crepuscular; the insect-eating species feed on the wing, in winter in the temperate regions they migrate to a warmer climate, or hibernate, as do the British bats. The sense-organs are highly developed; the wing-membranes are exceedingly sensitive; the nose-leaf is also an organ of perception, and the external ear is specially modified to receive sound-waves. Most bats are insect-eaters, but the tropical “flying foxes” or fox-bats of the Old World live on fruit; some are blood-suckers, and two feed on small fish. ”

“ Malayan islands, where the forests had been cleared for cultivation, and these trees left standing for the sake of their produce. Their clusters of large white flowers are produced about April, and form a great attraction to an enormous species of semi-diurnal bat, a kind which is said to be one of the greatest pests of Eastern fruit-groves. It is from cultivated trees that the finest of fruits are obtained; and, without exception, the best fruits I ever saw or tasted were from a tree in the grounds of Government House, Labuan. ”

“ The flight of the fruit-bats is not at all like that of the bats with which we are familiar, for as they do not feed upon insects there is no need for them to be constantly changing their course, and darting first to one side and then to the other in search of victims. So they fly slowly and steadily on, following one another just as crows do, and never turning from their course until they reach their feeding-ground. ”

“ The great Eastern Fruit Bats, trusting perhaps to their size and strength, are content to resort to the branches of trees, from which, after the manner of Bats in general, they suspend themselves by the hind feet with the head downwards. ”

“ The common Bats, like the Fruit Bats, sleep in what we should consider an exceedingly uncomfortable position, namely, with their heads downwards, but they cling by the claws of both hind feet to the small irregularities of the stone or wood forming the walls and other parts of the structure of their retreat. ”

“ Unless they were killed outright, they continued suspended for some time; when wounded they are difficult to handle, as they bite severely, and at such times their cry resembles somewhat the squalling of a child. The flesh of these bats is described to be excellent, and no wonder, when they feed on the sweetest fruits; the natives regard it as nutritious food, and travellers in Australia, like the adventurous Leichhardt on his journey to Port Essington, sometimes are furnished with a welcome meal from the fruit-eating fox- [Pg 45] bats which fall in their way. ”

“ Many readers have doubtless seen bats in the course of their evening walks, and it may, therefore, be worth while to remind them that British bats—the long-eared and the barbastelle bats, for example,—feed upon insects. The blood-suckers, again, do not appear to belong to any other country but South America. All the fruit-eaters are, comparatively speaking, big bats. ”

“ The squeak made by the bat is so very fine, that while to some ears it is loud, by others it cannot be heard. I once, when a boy, was exploring a hollow tree after owls' nests, when the smell from one particular hole was so dreadful that we put some lighted paper down to see what would come out; and to our astonishment dozens of large, reddish bats flew out, and dashed madly about in the bright sunlight. The bat has more vermin upon it than any other creature of its size. It seems needless to state that the bat is an animal, and not a bird or an insect ”

“ Bats resemble the ordinary field mouse in appearance, except for their large, expansive wings. They are mostly insectivorous, living almost exclusively on insects they catch while in flight, chewing their prey into the finest bits with their sharp teeth. A bat will eat enormous quantities of food between sunset and sunrise, and on the basis of only two full meals a night will consume an amount almost half its own weight. ”

“ In the daytime these bats roost in large colonies, hundreds or thousands of them pendent from the branches of some great ficus. Jerdon says of these bats: "If water is at hand, a tank, or river, or the sea, they fly cautiously down and touch the water, but I could not ascertain if they took a sip, or merely dipped part of their bodies in" (Mammals of India, p. 18) . The truth is, as Sir George Yule has told us from his own observation, that the bat in its skimming flight dips its breast in the water, and then imbibes the moisture from its own wet fur. ”

“ I have not been sorry to make you acquainted as we went along, with this little trait in the history of classification; but beyond it there is really nothing particular to say about the apparatus for the nourishment of the deposed bat-princes, which is a plain proof how nearly it must be like our own. By-the-by, there is one trifling remark to be made with regard to her teeth. The bats we have in our country (France) , for there are many varieties of species in the world, live on insects, which they catch in their flight by night. ”

“ The labouring people call the bat ‘bat-mouse.’ Here also come many beetles; and sometimes on a summer’s day the swallows will rest from their endless flight on the dying upper branches, for they too like a bough clear or nearly clear of leaves. All the year through the hollow tree is haunted by every kind of living creature, and therefore let us hope it may yet be permitted to linger awhile safe from the axe.
The lesser roots of the elm are porous like cane, and are sometimes smoked as cigars by the ploughboys. ”

“ As the creature moves about, the ears are continually in motion, being thrown into graceful and ever-changing curves. If people only knew what a pretty pet the long-eared bat can become, they would soon banish dormice and similar creatures in favour of bats.
It was rather a remarkable circumstance, that the bat of which I have just been speaking would not touch a fly, although one which I had in my possession some ten years since would eat flies and other insects readily. Whenever it took the insect, it daintily ate up the abdomen and thorax, rejecting the head, wings, and legs. ”

“ The flesh of most bats is eaten in the Eastern Archipelago, and by some esteemed, being compared to that of hare or partridge in flavour. The flesh of the largest and most common, the black-bellied roussette (Pteropus edulis, Geoff.) , has a musky odour, but is esteemed by the natives. They catch them in bags at the end of a pole.
Fancy a great frightful animal like a weasel, with wings two feet in length, being served up at table. Still they must be palatable, since one species has thus been named by naturalists, ‘the eatable’ bat. ”

“ I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it anything to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected, was worthy of observation, and pleased me much. Insects seem to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered: so that the notion that bats go down chimnies and gnaw men's bacon, seems no improbable story. ”

“ Bats are found in nearly all parts of the world, and may be divided according to their food into insect-eating and fruit-eating bats. The insect-eating bats belong generally to cold or mild climates, and the fruit-eaters to the tropics. ”

“ Most bats found in the Eastern States are either large brown house-bats, one of two kinds of little brown bats, black bats, red or tree bats, pigmy bats, or, last, largest and most beautiful of all, hoary bats. The big brown bat, or house-bat, is the commonest. This is the last of the bats to come out in the evening, for each has a certain fixed hour when [Pg 211] it begins to hunt, which varies only with the light. When the big brown bat starts, the twilight has almost turned to dark. ”

“ It draws its fingers together, throwing the membrane of the wing into folds, and so the free, strongly clawed thumb projects, and on this claw, and the hind feet which are free to the ankles, the bat walks, but as you might expect, its gait is very awkward.
The bat is a night-flying creature. Its sight is better suited for night than daylight; it prefers twilight, or dark caverns. Like the owl and the moth it sleeps by day, and comes out after sunset. As it eats insects it frequents shady places where insects can be found ”

“ The mole belongs to the Order of Insect-Eaters. He lives underground, and learns to dig with his shovel-like hands. When his pointed teeth grow out he chases worms up and down and around, and gobbles them as fast as he can.
The bats belong to the Order of Wing-Handed Mammals. The baby bat is rocked to sleep in his mother’s wings. He learns to fly in the dark and to hunt the swift insects that hover above the roads and ponds. When winter is near he finds a gloomy cave. There [Pg xiii] he hangs, head downward, by the hooks on his claws, and sleeps till spring brings the warm weather again. ”

“ The red bat is a tree bat, spending the daytime in the foliage of trees, and rarely, if ever, being found in caves or houses. It can be told at a glance by its red color. It is the greatest of all the bats except the last, the hoary bat, the largest of them all, with a wing-spread of from fifteen to seventeen inches. This [Pg 212] great bat soars high, well above the tree-tops, where it can prey upon the high-flying great moths. It is one of the most beautiful, as well as the rarest, of our bats, being found in the East only in the spring or fall migration. ”

“ From hence I would conclude that these hirundines, and the larger bats, are supported by some sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, or phalaenae, that are of short continuance; and that the short stay of these strangers is regulated by the defect of their food.
* The little bat appears almost every month in the year; but I have never seen the large ones till the end of April, nor after July. They are most common in June, but never in any plenty; are a rare species with us. ”

“ The great large bat* (which by the by is at present a nondescript in England, and what I have never been able yet to procure) retires and migrates very early in the summer: it also ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of the air; and that is the reason I never could procure one. Now this is exactly the case with the swifts; for they take their food in a more exalted region than the other species, and are very seldom seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over the surface of the water. ”