mmense numbers. I do not allow them to be
disturbed."]

The flying-fox is killed by the natives for the sake of its flesh, which
I have been told, by a gentleman who has eaten it, resembles that of the
hare.[1]

[Footnote 1: In Western India the native Portuguese eat the flying-fox,
and pronounce it delicate, and far from disagreeable in flavour.]

There are several varieties (some of them peculiar to the island) of the
horse-shoe-headed _Rhinolophus_, with the strange leaf-like appendage
erected on the extremity of the nose. It has been suggested that bats,
though nocturnal, are deficient in that keen vision characteristic of
animals which take their prey at night. I doubt whether this conjecture
be well founded; but at least it would seem that in their peculiar
oeconomy some additional power is required to supplement that of vision,
as in insects that of touch is superadded, in the most sensitive
development, to that of sight. Hence, it is possible that the extended
screen stretched at the back of their nostrils may be intended by nature
to facilitate the collection and conduction of odours, as the vast
development of the shell of the ear in the same family is designed to
assist in the collection of sounds--and thus to reinforce their vision
when in pursuit of their prey at twilight by the superior sensitiveness
of the organs of hearing and smell, as they are already remarkable for
that marvellous sense of touch which enables them, even when deprived of
sight, to direct their flight with security, by means of the delicate
nerves of the wing. One tiny little bat, not much larger than the humble
bee[1], and of a glossy black colour, is sometimes to be seen about
Colombo. It is so familiar and gentle that it will alight on the cloth
during dinner, and manifests so little alarm that it seldom makes any
effort to escape before a wine glass can be inverted to secure it.[2]

[Footnote 1: It is a _very_ small Singhalese variety of Scotophilus
Coromandelicus; _F. Cuv_.]

[Footnote 2: For a notice of the curious parasite peculiar to the bat,
see Note A. end of this chapter.]

III. CARNIVORA.--_Bears_.--Of the _carnivora_, the one most dreaded by
the natives of Ceylon, and the only one of the larger animals which
makes the depths of the forest its habitual retreat, is the bear[1],
attracted by the honey which is to be found in the hollow trees and
clefts of the rocks. Occasionally spots of fresh earth are observed
which h