. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. Photo by Fratelli Alinari\ PIPISTRELLE BAT Tkh is one of the commonest bats. It is the first to appear in the spring-, and the last to retire at the fall of the year Ceylon, was some india-rubber-trees, " where they used to assemble in such prodigious numbers that large boughs would not infrequently give way beneath the accumulated weight of the ; An observer in Calcutta relates that they occasionally travel in vast hordes, so great as to darken the sky. Whether they are performing some preconcerted migration or bent only on a foray to some d
. Mammals of other lands;. Mammals. Photo by Fratelli Alinari\ PIPISTRELLE BAT Tkh is one of the commonest bats. It is the first to appear in the spring-, and the last to retire at the fall of the year Ceylon, was some india-rubber-trees, " where they used to assemble in such prodigious numbers that large boughs would not infrequently give way beneath the accumulated weight of the ; An observer in Calcutta relates that they occasionally travel in vast hordes, so great as to darken the sky. Whether they are performing some preconcerted migration or bent only on a foray to some distant feeding-ground is a matter for speculation. These hordes are quite distinct from the " long strings " which may be seen every evening in Calcutta on their way to neighbouring fruit-trees. One of the most remarkable of this group is the Tube-nosed Fruit-bat, in which the nostrils are prolonged into a pair of relatively long tubes. Strangely enough, a group of insect- eating bats has developed similar though smaller tubes. Except in these bats, such tubes are unknown among mammals. Their function is not known. Insect-eating Bats. The vast majority of the bats comprising this group feed exclusively on insects. Some, however, have acquired the habit of fruit-eating, like the true fruit-bats; and a few have developed quite ogre- like habits, for they drink blood— indeed, they subsist upon nothing else. This they obtain from animals larger than themselves. Many of the bats of this group have developed curious leaf-like expan- sions of skin around the nose and mouth, which are supposed to be endowed with a very delicate sense of touch. In some, as in the Flower-nosed Bat, the nose-leaf is excessively developed, forming a large rosette. The upper border of this rosette is furnished with three stalked balls, the function of which it is surmised is probably orna- mental—from the bat's point of view. To our more aesthetic taste the whole effect is , Vhoto hy
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Keywords: ., bookauthorco, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmammals
